By Marjorie Chester
Is the increasing popularity of imported ready-made women’s clothing threatening the survival of Guyana’s dressmaking industry? The answer, it appears, depends on whom you ask. Among some fashion-conscious Guyanese women, particularly those who consider themselves mature ‘divas’ there appears, more often than not, to be a preference for the uniqueness the skilled seamstress offers. Even they admit, however, that the era of scores of local dressmakers whose bedrooms and living rooms appeared permanently overwhelmed by piles of fabric, half-done jobs and finished clothing is a thing of the past. “The dressmaking industry may not be dead but it no longer flourishes in the manner that it did 30 years ago,” says Norma Maynard, a mid-forties schoolteacher who has maintained a relationship with a seamstress throughout her adult life.
There is no mistaking the phenomenal
