The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — There’s precision in how Colleen Hensley hems the pants fabric.

Her 25 years experience as a tailor accounts for the dexterity, the efficiency.

It’s also the skill customers now can expect pretty much on demand at JoS. A. Bank Clothiers in Lake Sumter Landing Market Square.

Hensley’s tailoring skills are an important new element at the men’s clothing store that opened May 9 at 1095 Canal St.

“It’s immensely important,” store manager Bob Schotta said about the access to her tailoring skills. “This way we can handle customers when they come in to be fitted, immediately. We can handle emergencies, if we have to, when somebody needs something for, perhaps (a grandchild’s) graduation; maybe, a funeral; or even an unexpected trip. We can do this for them in one or two days.”

Ensuring promptness

Tailoring services are a big part of the business plan at the Hampstead, Md.-based publicly traded retailer.

“A tailor is staffed in most stores to ensure prompt, high-quality alteration service for our customers,” the company advised in its most recent annual shareholder’s report.

It backs up that statement, too.

“The company guarantees all of the tailoring work performed,” the retailer says in its 2007 annual report.

To ensure that promptness, the company operates three regional, overflow tailor shops in Kansas City, Kan., Hampstead and Atlanta.

“Operating the regional tailor shops has allowed the company to optimize its tailoring revenue in the stores by sending all overflow work to regional tailor shops,” the company reported.

But expect most of the work to be done locally, Schotta said, because of the unique nature of Villagers.

Many of them, Schotta said, are accustomed to expert tailoring services where they lived prior to moving here.

“Some customers are used to where they lived to have a tailor actually do all the fitting for them, all the markings and everything else,” Schotta said. “Although most of our salespeople are experienced enough they can do the majority of the fittings, we have that service and can tell the customer the tailor is here. So they can come in and meet her directly, and she can mark exactly what needs to be done on the garment.”

Following policy

Like many professionals, Hensley approaches her job in a deliberate, matter-of-fact manner.

“I started as a teenager at a summer job,” Hensley said about her early apprenticeship in Kalamazoo, Mich. “But I’d been sewing a long time before that. So it was just a natural extension.”

For now, Hensley serves not only The Villages store but also the company’s new store in Ocala.

“We’re using her three days a week now, and we also loan her up to our Ocala store for a couple of days,” Schotta said. “Once the fall comes, we’ll probably be using her in this store five days a week.”

With a few exceptions, Hensley said, the store will accept most alteration requests.

“There are things I decline,” Hensley said. “JoS. A. Bank does not get into the more extensive work like re-cuts. There’s no call anymore for watch pockets, so that’s not an issue. We can handle the normal things that need to be done.”

What’s more, Hensley accepts outside alteration requests. You don’t have to be a JoS. A. Bank customer, she said.

“We do outside alterations on a regular basis,” Hensley said. “That’s (the company’s) policy.”

Unless you’re in need of emergency alterations, however, Schotta will ask customers to wait for most tailored work.

“We try to schedule work at 10 days to two weeks,” Schotta said, depending on customer demand. “But we can handle things in two days or less. And there is no premium.”

David R. Corder is a reporter with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9066, or at david.corder@thevillages

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