There is a shop in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner-north, that doesn’t look like much at first glance but is home to one of the city’s unsung legends.<\/p>\n
Since 1989, Vietnamese-born tailor Nam Huynh has been fitting generations with denim jeans made to last.<\/p>\n
And in the 36 years he has been in business, he’s never taken a day off.<\/p>\n
“I don’t take days off because I love the job,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Every morning I wake up at seven, go to the shop, and work until 4:30 or 5:30, six days a week.<\/p>\n
“On Sunday, I work in the warehouse. That means I work seven days a week. If you don’t love the job, you can’t work like that.”<\/p>\n
Nam Huynh sews a pair of jeans at his factory in Melbourne. “I know jeans can\u2019t fit everyone perfectly,” he says. “That\u2019s why I provide free alterations to make customers happy.”(ABC: Esra Ozkul)<\/p>\n
Nam has always loved fashion, “it’s in my blood”.<\/p>\n
“If you want to do anything, you have to love it. If you love it, you can work nonstop. You don’t feel tired, you always have energy.”<\/p>\n
He was 14 when his sister taught him to sew.<\/p>\n
“In 1975, when the communists took over South Vietnam, life became very hard for everyone,” he said. “Everyone had to work to survive. Even when I was 14, I had to work. The good thing is my sister taught me everything.<\/p>\n
“My family didn’t want me to join the Communist Army. They forced me to escape from Vietnam on a fishing boat. It took about three days to get to Malaysia, and I stayed there about eight months. Then the Australian government let me come to Australia in 1981.”<\/p>\n
Nam faced the challenge of a new country and a new language with the energy that has brought him success.<\/p>\n
Tailor Nam Huynh with Dejour jeans staff at his shop in Melbourne. His staff helped him master English over the years.(ABC: Esra Ozkul)<\/p>\n
“Sewing was my skill, so that was the only job I could do. I worked six days a week. At that time, jobs were everywhere, so I worked as much as I could to save money for my own business,” he said.<\/p>\n
When Nam arrived in Australia, his English was limited. “[So] I learned from my staff. They talked to me every day. They were like my English teachers as well.”<\/p>\n
By 1989, Nam had saved enough to buy some sewing machines and set up Dejour.<\/p>\n
“At first, it was a big struggle. No one knew me, only local people passing by my shop. I didn’t have money to advertise. Anyone who wanted jeans, I helped them, fixed them, did everything just to make them happy,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The reason I picked that shop was because the rent was cheap, so I could survive for a long time.<\/p>\n
“At first, I didn’t have enough customers \u2014 just locals in Brunswick. But through word of mouth and friends, my customer base grew every year. Ten years later, I had many customers.”<\/p>\n
Initially, Nam did all the work himself. He needed 10 machines to make the jeans. As the business grew, he managed to put on extra staff.<\/p>\n
One of the things Nam is proudest of is offering free alterations.<\/p>\n
“I know jeans can’t fit everyone perfectly. That’s why I provide free alterations to make customers happy,” he said.<\/p>\n
Since 1989, \u00a0Nam Huynh has been fitting generations with denim jeans made to last.\u00a0(ABC: Esra Ozkul)<\/p>\n
Over the 36 years he has been in business, Nam has seen many changes but he believes it’s best to stick to what you’re best at.<\/p>\n
“Even now, when the economy is tough, I’m still happy because I can do my job for my customers,” Nam said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of shop owners have closed, but I survive because this is my passion. Even if the income isn’t much, I still want to work.<\/p>\n
“Many people say my life is boring because it’s just work and sleep. But I don’t feel that way. I’m happy doing what I love.”<\/p>\n
As for the future?<\/p>\n
“I will keep working until I can’t work anymore. Maybe when I’m very old and can’t walk. Until then, I’ll keep sewing jeans for my customers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a shop in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner-north, that doesn’t look like much at first glance but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,43036,20638,41203,84888,84887,647,84886,84890,84889,5611,48618,6900,14850,6624],"class_list":["post-120102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-factory","tag-fashion","tag-fashion-design","tag-fashion-industry","tag-jeans","tag-melbourne","tag-nam-huynh","tag-refugee","tag-south-vietnam","tag-vietnam","tag-vietnam-war","tag-war","tag-week","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}