Jumi Cha has had a clothing repair and alteration shop in the Vermont Marketplace at 580 Canal Street just off Interstate 91, Exit 1 for the past several years. (He set up his first shop in The Brooks House in Brattleboro just over 20 years ago.) He was born in Incheon, Korea, just west of Seoul, in 1952, which makes him 73 today. He lived in Incheon for most of his early life. His father, who retired in 1970, was a policeman most of his life; his mother was a hair stylist and ran a beauty shop. In 1985, at age 33, he married Euisoon Jung and they lived in Incheon.
At a very early age, Jumi started learning a trade -repairing and altering clothing – from his mother and her friend Kim Yung Soon. “They taught me as a boy so that I would have a skill from which I could make a living as an adult. (He also went through public education through the equivalent of a high school education.)
In 2000, Euisoon heard from her niece living in Greenfield, MA. Jumi and his wife accepted her invitation to move to the US – that she would help them get established. They have lived in Greenfield with their second daughter since 2000 having bought a house there in 2005. (Their first daughter, Juhee is 36 and has moved back to Korea.) Subsequently, the family gained US Citizenship.
After settling into their new life in America, Jumi began looking for a place to set up a clothing repair and alteration shop given that had been his life’s work in Incheon. Shortly after arriving in Greenfield, Jumi met Kim, (the owner of Shin La Restaurant on lower High Street in Brattleboro) at a Korean Church in Greenfield. His link to Kim drew him to Brattleboro for a visit to see if that might be where he could set up a shop.
Of Brattleboro, he said, “I liked the feel of the town. The people were kind, not too busy-busy-busy but good. My wife and I felt very comfortable here.”
It didn’t take long to decide on Brattleboro. He would drive the twenty-five miles or so north on Interstate 91 each day from Greenfield where they still live. He set up a shop on the ground floor of the Brooks Building at the corner of Western Avenue and Main Street. Folks from the area saw he possessed unusual skills to repair and alter clothing rather than spend much more money on new clothing. His shop was launched and continued to flourish for ten years. The extensive fire in late April, 2012 in The Brooks Building brought that to an end.
He moved his shop to his present location and over time, as other shops were developed, he began renting his 16’ wide and 80’ long space in the heart of The Marketplace. He named his store and workshop Jumi’s Shop – open 10:00 – 5:00, weekdays. There he offers extraordinarily skilled services – based on literally a lifetime of experience: to alter clothing to smaller sizes, change styles, repair tears or shorten clothing. He might be asked to shorten sleeves or make a piece of clothing smaller. (Making sleeves or clothing longer or larger is not something he could do unless the customer can provide matching cloth.)
When one enters his tidy, well-lit shop, you pass used as well as new clothing for sale as well as Korean objects. The heart of the shop, nestled between a single changing room at the far back and the “shop” at the front is where Jumi does his quiet work. A sturdy table supports two sewing machines: a Juki five-year old Japanese sewing machine for lighter, finer work and a black 40 year old Singer “single motion” for heavier work and heavier single threads. One a separate sewing table is a smaller three-spool (three-threaded) Juki sewing machine for heavier duty clothing or decorative work using three differently colored threads. He has access to an infinite number of threads and supplies from a sewing source catalogue – WAWAK SEWING – that has been in business since 1907 in Conklin, NY.
On the wall behind his sewing table are hundreds of spools of threads of all the colors of the rainbow displayed on little wooden pegs. There are baskets of spools of thread, and scissors, needles…., all organized just so.
Across the aisle from his sewing table are piles of clothing waiting to be picked up by customers: jeans that he made smaller; fifteen winter jackets that had torn pockets or rips, parkas, sportscoats, pants that were too big, curtains (or sleeves) that were shortened, parkas that needed new zippers, patched tears on jeans that look fashionably just right… He even has a shelf of 2nd hand clothing: scarves, hats, dresses, slacks, socks, even old watches and jewelry.
During this writer’s 1 ½ hour interview with Jumi, three customers visited – he estimates he gets around ten new customers a day. The first was Ken Van Cott, 76 years of age, who lives on Washington Street in Brattleboro. “I asked Jumi to repair the zipper on my leather jacket. My wife, Christy Johnson, has for thirty-three years done most of our sewing repairs, but the ones she can’t do we always ask Jumi to do. We’re the right generation for repairing clothing rather than throwing out and buying new.”
The second was Tina Harris from Dummerston. She took along a winter jacket of her husband Ken’s – it was his favorite. Tina is a sewer (and skilled artist) and she has a great deal of experience with sewing: “We’re starting to use things and clothing left from my parents’ farm in Bernardston, but a broken jacket zipper was too much for me. Jumi will repair or replace it. And after all, he’s the only game in town when you need clothing repairs.”
The third was a twenty-two year old woman who lives in Keene and works at 802 Credit Union on Putney Road in Brattleboro. She was at Jumi’s on her lunchbreak. She had recently lost weight and hoped Jumi could tighten the waist size on her worn jeans shorts. It was a Wednesday midday when she asked, sheepishly, “Could you have this ready for me in two days? I leave for a vacation on Saturday?” Jumi answered “Yes, that’s OK.” This writer happened to be back in Jumi’s shop to review this profile with him Friday around noon when the young lady returned. Her altered shorts were waiting to be picked up. Her smile said it all.
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.