How Gujarat’s Dawoodi Bohra Merchants Shaped Kolkata’s Bespoke Tailoring Legacy

Founded at the turn of the 20th century, Kolkata’s Muslim tailoring shops are a living archive of colonial trade, Indian craftsmanship, bespoke menswear culture, and the migrant communities that shaped the city’s sartorial identity.

Representational images of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim tailors.

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. L: J.S. Mohamedally R: Heritage Retailers of Calcutta: 1785 to 1950

Published on:

27 May 2026, 6:23 am

3 min read

Summary

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.

One of the founding members of J.S. MohamedallyCourtesy J.S. Mohamedally

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.

J.S. Mohamedally moved to its current 2,000 sq. ft. location at Chowringhee Square, Esplanade, in 1938Courtesy of Heritage Retailers of Calcutta: 1785 to 1950

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.

Archival image of J.S. Mohamedally at Chowringhee Square.Courtesy J.S. Mohamedally

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.

If you enjoyed reading this, here’s more from Homegrown:

Around The Sufrah: An Exhibition Depicting The Lost Print Histories Of Mappila Muslim Women

A ‘Punk Iftaar’ Is Making Space For Muslim & South Asian Identity In Hardcore Punk

‘The Great Shamsuddin Family’ Is An Honest Portrayal Of Modern Muslim Indian Identity

community