Fifty-one winters on Ashok Marg

Cut for one body.
Yours.

TANKA is a bespoke tailoring house in C-Scheme, Jaipur. Bandhgalas, sherwanis, suits, blouses and the kind of lehenga alteration nobody else will attempt — all drafted from ten measurements taken by hand, never off a size chart.

Design your garment Book a fitting
1974Bench opened
21 daysStandard delivery
3Fittings included
10Measurements taken
Scroll
0
Years at the bench
0
Garments drafted
0+
Wedding parties dressed
0/10
Fit accepted at first try
Master tailor Nazeer Ahmed Qureshi at the machine inside the TANKA workroom
Hands finishing a leather-edged seam by hand
34Years
at the bench
The master cutter

Nazeer Ahmed Qureshi does not use a size chart.

He learned the trade at fourteen, in a two-machine room behind Chandpole Bazaar, from a father who cut achkans for the old Jaipur households. He has been drafting at TANKA since 1991. Every pattern that leaves this room is drawn on brown paper in his hand — no CAD, no borrowed block, no “standard 40”.

Alongside him, Meenakshi Rathore runs the women’s bench — nineteen years of blouses, choli panels and the salvage work on heirloom lehengas that arrive here after somebody else has already tried.

“A jacket that fits standing is easy. I cut for the man who has to sit through a four-hour pheras.”
Hand-drafted patterns Full canvas on request Three fittings standard Pattern kept on file for life
Nazeer A. Qureshi
What bespoke actually means here

Nobody stitches a garment they have not first drawn.

“Made-to-measure” in most Jaipur shops means a ready block nudged an inch here and there. At TANKA the paper pattern is drafted fresh for your ten numbers, cut in muslin first for the heavy pieces, and only then does scissors touch your fabric. That is the whole difference — and it is why the first fitting usually holds.

Draft
Brown paper, chalk, one body. The block is drawn from your measurements, not adjusted from a sample size.
Canvas
Horsehair chest canvas floated by hand in the jacket front — it moulds to your chest over a season instead of collapsing like fusing.
Baste
The garment is loosely sewn in white thread and worn once before it is real. Anything wrong dies at this stage.
Archive
Your pattern is numbered and shelved. Order number two, five years later, needs one phone call.
See the six stages
Hands guiding cloth under a sewing machine foot at the TANKA workroom
Workroom — second floor, Sunder Bhawan
What we cut

Six benches, one standard.

Menswear, womenswear and a repair bench that takes work other shops refuse. Prices below are stitching charges — fabric is separate, and you may bring your own.

01 Man wearing a deep blue bandhgala with mandarin collar

Bandhgala & Jodhpuri

Mandarin collar, five-button front, canvassed chest. The Jaipur uniform for weddings, engagements and every board meeting that matters.

Stitching from ₹8,500
02 Cream embroidered sherwani hanging in front of a decorated golden door

Sherwani & Achkan

Knee-length, flared skirt, zardozi or tone-on-tone. Four fittings, dupatta and safa styled in-house on the morning of the wedding.

Stitching from ₹14,500
03 A tailored suit jacket and tie fitted on a workroom mannequin

Two & Three-Piece Suits

Notch, peak or shawl. Half or full canvas, working cuff buttonholes, pick-stitched edges if you want the detail visible.

Stitching from ₹11,500
04 Red and gold paisley brocade used for designer blouse panels

Designer Blouses

Princess-cut, katori, corset-boned or sheer-back. Meenakshi’s bench — padded cups, hooks that hold, no gaping armhole.

Stitching from ₹4,200
05 Man in a golden turban and traditional kurta set

Kurta Sets & Nehru

Chikankari, linen, raw silk. Straight or angrakha, with churidar, pyjama or dhoti pants cut to the same block.

Stitching from ₹5,600
06 Fabric pinned and marked for alteration on the workbench

Lehenga & Alteration Bench

Kali re-panelling, waist reduction on a finished lehenga, zari re-lay, sleeve resets. 48-hour turnaround on standard work.

From ₹350
Made-to-measure configurator

Build the garment. Watch it change.

Pick the cut, the cloth, the lining, the buttons and the finish. The drawing on the left redraws itself with every choice, the price updates live, and the delivery date is calculated from today with your fitting schedule built in.

Bandhgala Bikaner Wool-Silk · Mandarin band
Draft No. 1
Live drawing of the garment you are configuring A.S. TANKA · JAIPUR · DRAFT
Estimated total
₹0
Ready by
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1 Choose the garment
2 Pull a cloth off the shelf

Cloth required for this cut: 2.6 m. Bringing your own fabric? Choose it here for the drawing, then tell us on WhatsApp — we deduct the cloth line entirely.

3 Lining
4 Collar & buttons

Collar

Buttons

Cuff finish

5 Finishing & timeline
Zardozi collar & placketHand zari on the stand and front edge
Hand pick-stitched edgesVisible 4 mm stitch along lapel and hem
Inner monogramYour initials on the lining, in gold thread
Rush the benchCut down to 10 working days — adds 18%
Measurement studio

Ten numbers. Take them once.

Tap into any field and the diagram shows you exactly where the tape goes and how tight to pull it. Switch to centimetres if that is how your last tailor wrote them. Everything you enter travels with your order to the bench.

Diagram showing where each measurement is taken on the body Neck Shoulder Chest Waist Seat Bicep Sleeve Wrist Length Inseam
Tap any field on the right — the tape line lights up here.
in
in
in
in
in
in
in
in
in
in
10 of 10 measurements attached

Not confident with a tape? Leave it blank and pick home visit below — the karigar carries the tape, the book and a fabric folder, and there is no charge inside Jaipur city limits.

Twenty-one days, six pairs of hands

From bolt to box.

Every order moves through the same six stages. You are told, by phone, when it crosses each one.

01
Cloth being cut on the workroom table

Cut

Pattern chalked on the bolt, cut in one pass so the weave never shifts.

Day 1 – 2
02
Panels held together with loose basting thread

Baste

Loose white thread holds the shell together. Nothing is permanent yet.

Day 3 – 6
03
Tailor adjusting a garment on a mannequin in the shop window

First fitting

You wear the basted shell. Balance, shoulder pitch and length are corrected on you.

Day 7 – 9
04
Karigar running a finished seam on the machine

Finish

Canvas floated, lining set, buttonholes worked, edges pick-stitched if chosen.

Day 10 – 16
05
Final hand work before pressing

Press

Steam and a heavy iron, section by section. This is where the shape is actually set.

Day 17 – 19
06
Finished garments on the delivery rail

Deliver

Final fitting at the shop, or boxed and dropped to your door inside Jaipur.

Day 20 – 21
The sound of the second floor

Eleven machines, and not one of them decides the fit.

Machines close seams. The fit is decided upstairs, on brown paper, with a pencil that has been sharpened with a blade since 1974. If you want to watch it happen, the workroom door is open on any weekday afternoon.

Book a workroom visit See the lookbook
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