For 117 years, Kolkata’s bespoke clothiers like Mohamdali Goolamali & Co., J.S. Mohamedally, and Akberally’s have survived empire, Independence, Partition, and changing fashion trends. Their story reveals how Dawoodi Bohra Muslim tailors and textile merchants transformed the city’s sartorial culture through bespoke craftsmanship and colonial-era trade networks in the 20th century.
In 1909, two men from Gujarat arrived in Kolkata at their spiritual leader’s advice. The crown jewel of the British Empire in India at the time, Calcutta was the land of opportunities for enterprising men. Their names were Jeewajee Shaikh Mohamedally and Mullah Abdul Hussain. They were textile merchants from the mercantile Dawoodi Bohra community. They opened a quaint little shop on Armenian Street and named it ‘J.S. Mohamedally’. A lot has changed since then — the capital has shifted to New Delhi, India has become independent, Calcutta has become Kolkata — and J.S. Mohamedally has clothed Indians through it all. 117 years later, the shop is still running, shifting from its original location to a larger space in Radha Bazar Street in 1930, before finally settling at its current 2,000 sq. ft. location at Chowringhee Square, Esplanade, in 1938.
The story of J.S. Mohamedally is not only the story of one family or one store — it is also the story of how Muslim ‘darzi’ tailors and textile merchants, many of them from the Dawoodi Bohra community of Gujarat, transformed Kolkata’s sartorial identity at the turn of the 20th century. As the Great War loomed over Europe, the British Empire required uniforms for its Indian troops who were sent to the frontiers. While Hindu tailors refused to handle raw cow hides to make leather goods for the British Army due to religious restrictions, Muslim darzis took advantage of this need. Many of them migrated to Calcutta, a major hub of British India’s textile industry (the other being Madras). The families behind Mohamedali Goolamali & Co. (1896), J.S. Mohamedally (1909), and Akberally’s Clothiers (1964) were among them.
These tailors and textile merchants sourced their stocks from across the country (and sometimes abroad) through kinship networks in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Mysore, New Delhi, and Secundrabad. In the 20th century, as Indian elites, civil servants, and office workers began dressing in Western formal attire to match their British colonial counterparts, these shops employed in-house tailors skilled at making bespoke suits, shirts, and trousers for a clientele spanning virtually all sections of colonial Indian society. The tailoring shop became a site where colonial aspiration, local craftsmanship, and evolving 20th-century Indian identities intersected.
Even after Independence, many of these families refused to move to Pakistan and stayed in India. In Kolkata, they continued operating through decades of political upheaval, economic change, and shifting fashion trends. They have continued to sell formal shirting and suiting fabrics and offer bespoke tailoring services, even as the market has shifted toward ready-to-wear clothes. They represent India’s, especially Indian Muslims’, long history of craftsmanship and textile heritage.
Where To Find Them:
Mohamedali Goolamali & Co.
14, Bentinck Street, Gujarat Mansion, Mission Row Extension, Lal Bazar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700001.
J. S. Mohamedally
Tower House, 2B, Chowringhee Square, Esplanade, Kolkata, West Bengal 700069.
Akberally’s Clothiers
11A, Esplanade East, Chowringhee North, Bow Barracks, Kolkata, West Bengal 700069.
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