Omar Ali: How a Man Went from Being a Cleaner to Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Tailor

During the British colonisation era in Malaya, Omar Ali migrated to Kuala Lumpur from Indonesia at 17 and worked as a cleaner and a tailor for a Japanese lady. The Japanese lady specialised in creating women's ball gowns for the wives of British expatriates. The brand, which has made a name for itself with its high-quality baju melayu, started selling ballgowns.

Witth WWII building up, Omar Ali’s mentor decided to return to Japan for safety. But before returning, she passed down her business to Omar and taught her now apprentice sewing skills. Sadly, before WWII broke out, many expats also decided to flee back to their home countries in droves, which put a lid on the ballgown business.

Accepting it as part of business, Omar didn’t give up and decided to open his own shop in 1935 by selling another craft he had mastered: baju melayu.

With the skills and craftsmanship he acquired, Omar Ali made a name for himself as a respected Malay tailor in KL.

He opened his shop in the Masjid India enclave before moving to the Malay Bazaar, now known as Wisma Yakin. He garnered loyal clientele, including Tunku Abdul Rahman himself. As a bespoke baju melayu tailor, Tunku Abdul Rahman even requested that Omar customise a baju melayu cekak musang with three buttons and a mandarin collar instead of the usual five buttons. This resulted in the ‘Tunku Collar’ design, also known as the ‘3 Butang’ baju melayu, which is more comfortable around the neck for its wearer.

Although he was known as a baju melayu tailor who created bespoke pieces, Omar realised that he could not expand his business due to limited time and resources if he continued. This was when he decided to sell ready-made baju melayu in the early 1970s in small, medium, and large sizes, which proved to be a success and is still so today. Previously, customers had to custom-make all their baju melayu, so attire was not readily available off-the-rack.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as one of his sons, Haji Muhammad Sohaimi Bin Omar, started his own business called Bak Tailor. Haji was also an innovator in the local baju melayu industry as he came up with the idea of making samping for children. Bak Tailor still exists today and counts Tun Dr Mahathir Muhammad and Tun Dato’ Sri Haji Abdullah Ahmad Badawi among its clients.

The baton for Omar Ali’s business has now been passed on to the second generation and third generation, including his grandson, Sulaiman Idris. Sulaiman runs the Bukit Tunku outlet and spearheads the company in a more modern and premium direction. He also created the Omar Ali Bespoke and Omar Ali Couture brands.

In 2023, Sulaiman initiated a collaboration with Loro Piana, an Italian company owned by LMVH that specialises in textiles, to obtain material from them. Today, Omar Ali has nine stores, where his legacy continues to live on.