Iranian Clothing & jewelry

Iranian clothing and jewelry in Germany. This page sits above two trades that share a customer and almost nothing else: tailoring on one side, gold and jewelry on the other. What connects them is usually an occasion, the party where the outfit has to sit properly and the gift has to last. What does not connect them at all are the questions worth asking before you pay.

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Two branches, two sets of questions

• Tailoring and clothing: everything from taking up a trouser hem to making a wedding dress, and the shops that sell clothes and fabric.
• Jewelry: buying and commissioning, plus repairs such as resizing a ring or soldering a broken chain.

Tailoring: altering what you own, or having something made

Both happen in the same shop and they are not the same job.

Alterations work on a garment that already exists: shortening hems and sleeves, taking in the waist and sides, replacing a zip or a lining. There is usually one fitting, and it comes back within a few days, depending on the shop and the season.

Made to measure starts from fabric and a pattern, the measurements are taken on your own body, and it needs more than one fitting: an appointment for measuring, then a fitting on a loosely basted version that is nowhere near finished, then one or two more. How many depends on the tailor and the garment, so ask at the first one.

A fitting means turning up in the shoes you will actually wear on the day, and the underwear that goes under the garment. Not fussiness: hem length is set by the heel, and a dress fitted over the wrong shoes will drag on the floor or sit short.

Bridal and heavy formalwear should start earliest. Fabric or beading may have to be ordered in, several fittings are needed, and the last one usually sits close to the date so the measurements are right on the day. Ask on the first call how long it needs, rather than a month before.

A garment that was made somewhere else

A dress brought from Iran, bought on a trip, or ordered from a seller outside Germany has its own rules. Every garment carries a little spare fabric inside its seams, the seam allowance (Nahtzugabe), and all the room to let something out comes from there. Mass produced clothes usually have very little of it, so taking in is nearly always possible and letting out often is not: with nothing spare inside the seam, the tailor either has to add fabric, which shows, or tell you it cannot be done.

Two other things decide it: on some fabrics the old seam line stays visible and shiny once opened, and lining, beading and lace mean several layers taken apart and rebuilt. Before you leave the garment, ask them to turn it inside out and say what is possible and what is not.

Gold: what you grew up with, and what is on the ticket here

Most of the disagreements in this trade come from one difference in how a price is put together.

Where most of us learned to buy gold, the price is built from two parts: weight times the rate of the day, plus a making charge. So you always know how much of your money is the metal and how much is the work on it. A German shop usually puts one price on the ticket and leaves it there. Neither way is wrong, but the two cannot be compared unless you ask for two numbers separately: the weight in grams, and the karat.

Eighteen karat is what most of us grew up with, and in our heads that is simply what gold means. German shops stock other karats too, and a lower one is not a fault in itself: it is harder, and wears better in a ring worn every day. But when two pieces weigh the same and the karat differs, there is not the same amount of gold in them. Compare karat with karat.

The number stamped on a piece in Germany is usually given in parts per thousand rather than in karats: 750 means 18 karat gold, and 585 means 14 karat.

Here is the part many people do not know. In Germany that stamp is not compulsory, and where it does appear it was applied by the maker or the seller, not by a state office that tested the piece. Some countries have an official body that assays and marks every item; Germany does not. The mark is the seller's own statement, not a third party's certificate.

Which means the invoice matters more than the mark. Ask for one carrying the exact weight in grams, the karat and the date. That sheet is what is useful later: for insurance, for the day a piece is divided between heirs, and for the day you sell or exchange it. If stones are set in it, ask whether the stated weight is the whole piece or the gold alone.

This page is not about whether buying gold is a good idea, only about what to ask when you do.

Buy-back and trade-in, agreed before you buy

The usual pattern is that someone buys a piece and asks about the terms years later, when they want to exchange or sell it. By then the other side sets them. Ask before you pay: whether this shop takes the piece back at all; if so, on what basis, weight at the day's rate, a percentage of the purchase price, or credit against a future purchase; whether the making charge counts towards the buy-back or is simply gone; and whether the original invoice is a condition. It usually does not come back, which is reason enough to know from the start how much of your money it was.

What to ask when you get in touch

• A written price before work starts: for tailoring, a price per job; for a commission, the total and what is inside it.
• The weight in grams and the karat, separately and on the invoice, with the date.
• The delivery date, and for an occasion garment, the date of the final fitting.
• For a garment made elsewhere: what the seam allowance permits and what is simply not possible.
• Buy-back and exchange terms, before you pay rather than after.
• After delivery: what happens, and at what cost, if something does not sit right or a solder joint gives way.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from this list

Both trades here end with you in the room: a fitting needs a body in it, and gold has to be held and seen in daylight. So place matters, and the city list at the bottom of this page is where to start.

In the reviews, look for what can actually be judged: whether the work came back on the date promised, whether the garment sat right after the final fitting, whether the invoice was written out in detail. Do not expect a review to tell you anything about the quality of a stone or the honesty of a karat mark. Those are settled by the invoice, and if need be by an independent valuer.

Buying gold and having clothes taken in are both things people would rather their relatives did not hear about. YabInfy does not show who looked at which profile or who got in touch, and does not store it at all. The only thing that becomes public from your side is a review you choose to write, under a name you pick for it. Every contact route sits behind "Show contact details" and goes straight to the shop.

The FAQ explains how this site works, and if you run a tailoring or jewelry business yourself, add your business.