Hong Kong is long known to be a shopping paradise for tourists, but even before tourism took off, the tailoring industry has already made a name catering to business travelers and servicemen from overseas. One shop is particularly famous, as it boasts a clientele including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton as well as the late Queen Elizabeth. Let’s bring our guest today, Roshan Melwani, the third-generation successor of Sam’s Tailor. Welcome to the show, Roshan. Chloe, thank you so much for having me, I’m delighted to be here today. Could you give us an overview of your family business? My grandfather came to Hong Kong in 1952. He worked at a tailor shop, and after about five years he had accumulated enough money on his own to open his own shop in 1957, Sam’s Tailor. Soon after that, he sent for my grandmother, my dad, my aunt, and my uncle. At a very young age, all three children started to work in the shop, and they built Sam’s Tailor into what it is now. This is my 24th year on the job. It has been incredible, so fulfilling, and I’m looking forward to the next 24 years. Every day is different, I get to work to work with virtually a different person every hour on the hour. At Sam’s Tailor, our goal is to delve inside our clients’ minds and bring their vision to life. We do not dictate, we create, and that’s why people come to us. What are memorable experiences tailoring for world leaders? The most phenomenal thing was to work with three different U.S. presidents. I first worked with President Clinton when I was only 23 or 24, over two decades ago. I followed that by working with President Bush Senior twice, and then President Bush Junior once as well. I’ve been lucky to work with many A-list celebrities, including three Oscar-winning actors and actresses, captains of industry, and politicians. Every project is unique. One interesting challenge was getting my team on board with making dresses for men. Sam’s Tailor has become an amazing hotspot for guys wanting to make dresses and women’s clothing, almost a safe haven for that. Years ago I asked them to make suits with short pants or short sleeves, which was outside the box for them, but now everybody has fun with it. How did your business do over the past three years of the pandemic? My business was severely impacted in a negative way, but I managed to reinvent myself very quickly. Because of border closures and quarantine, travelers couldn’t come to Hong Kong for nearly three years. They still needed clothes, so I consulted with them using WhatsApp video, Skype, FaceTime, and Zoom. I used our shop phone, handed it to a staff member to film me, and I was in my element showing fabrics, linings, styles, and buttons. I brought the Sam’s Tailor experience to clients worldwide without needing VR goggles or complex software. It helped stem the bleed. We went from virtually zero followers on TikTok to 520,000 followers inside three years. People enjoyed seeing others go through this journey. My father asked me to be cautious with the whole world watching, but he’s really pleased with the reach. When the pandemic started, we went days on end without customers, but the global population still needs clothing. Did you see a surge in demand after border reopening? Unfortunately not yet, but it will come. I have seen a micro uptick: people returning to renew ID cards after three years away, or clients with existing business here. I am not seeing regular tourists, family vacations, or big conferences yet. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe we are nearly there. It’s everybody’s responsibility, multinational companies, small businesses, journalists, to remind the world that Hong Kong is open and back. Did you have staff layoffs? We put everybody on a four-day week instead of a six-day week during the height of it, and we have now returned everyone to a five-day week. We couldn’t afford full salaries when business stopped, so everyone took a bite. They were good to us, and we are loyal to them. When I first joined, we had nearly 100 tailors; now we probably have half of that, because not enough young people grow up wanting to be tailors. It’s our moral responsibility to look after them. Will business return to its heyday? I don’t think it will ever recover to its previous peak because the pandemic taught people that you don’t need to go to an office and wear a suit Monday to Friday. But that doesn’t mean we cannot be successful. If we reach 70% or 80% of pre-pandemic levels, we will be very happy. What suggestions would you give the Financial Secretary? Throw resources toward a global campaign to bring business tourism back to Hong Kong, PwC, KPMG, Goldman Sachs conventions, catering and art expos, family offices. Get Hong Kong relevant in global workplaces, and the trickle-down effect on retail and tourism will be huge. The free flight tickets campaign is already a win because the whole world is talking about Hong Kong. People have been predicting the demise of the suit since the 1990s with dress-down Fridays, but the suit has not died. Businesses only die if they fail to reinvent themselves. If you have desire and evolve, you thrive.