Trying on clothes can be a hassle. But what’s even worse than ruining your hair pulling shirts on and off is when you find those pair of jeans that have just the right amount of stretch in the thighs, give in the waist and perfectly dark sunken wash, but they’re too long. Then comes the question, buy them and cuff them? No, that was so last season. What about just always wearing them with heels? No, the thought of blisters isn’t too pleasing. What about getting them tailored? A lot of tailor shops are expensive and always seem to have a turn around date after the day needed. But that’s not the case at Jung Tailors.
Snuggled between a restaurant and bike shop, sits the family owned tailor shop. The store opened Jan. 1, 2004. The owners are from South Korea and have been married for 27 years after being high school sweethearts. The store is named after the wife, Jung, and her husband, Chaoi, says that it’s named after her because she is what led them to America.
They both moved to the United States because Chaoi and Jung wanted a better life and education for their two sons. Chaoi learned how to tailor because his friends recommended it to immigrants because they don’t need to know a lot of English, and it’s easy once you get the hang of it. Chaoi said it was the best decision he has ever made, besides marrying his wife, of course.
Walking up to the store, it seems like any other ordinary tailoring shop, until the framed award hanging on the wall catches a glimpse of sunlight — it speaks for itself. The award is for the top tailoring service in Des Moines in 2010.
“I’m not sure why I got this award,” Chaoi said. “I just come to work and do my job. I like tailoring, it’s something to do.”
Though the award says a lot about his service, so does the presence of his shop. Chaoi explains himself as a simple man, a sentiment adopted by the store’s layout. The walls are a light pink, with delicate flowers in each corner. There are two small wooden desks that have a calendar and pencil on each desk and next to the calendars are big pale colored erasers. Surrounding the walls are racks of plastic wrapped clothing with vanilla tags hanging from the neck of the hanger, with writing on the tags that looks like spirals and lines.
“I like simple things that look nice and are easy to change,” Chaoi said, “That’s why I let Jung choose pink for the walls, so I can change it soon. Our store is nothing special.”
But what Chaoi doesn’t realize is that since his store opened, there have been nothing but three-star reviews written about his shop online.
Sarah Joseph, a banker at Wells Fargo, said the turnaround date for her three pairs of Calvin Klein jeans, each with different stitching, was one week.
“I told him it didn’t have to be ready for two weeks, but he said that one week was long enough,” Joseph said.
Jung Tailors is located at 5966 Ashworth Road in West Des Moines and is open six days a week.
