For a tailor who makes or custom-fits garments for individual customers and households, NIC 141006 is the specific NIC 2025 code to review. Its scope is custom tailoring services catering to individuals or households. The defining feature is made-to-order work for the end customer: measurements, fabric or design choices and garment construction are performed for a particular client rather than as mass production for a ready-made clothing brand.
What makes a business “custom tailoring”
A neighbourhood tailor, boutique tailor or made-to-measure studio can fit this activity when customers order clothing to their measurements. The customer may bring fabric or the tailor may supply it as part of the order. The commercial promise is a customised garment or alteration-to-order service centred on personal requirements.
- made-to-measure garments for individuals;
- custom stitching from customer measurements;
- boutique tailoring for household consumers;
- individual garment fitting linked to a custom order;
- small-batch work where each order is customer-specific.
Do not confuse 141006 with factory tailoring
NIC 141007 separately covers tailoring services for manufacturers of ready-made garments. A contractor stitching components or garments for a clothing manufacturer operates in a business-to-business production chain, which is different from a tailor serving individual households. The distinction should be based on who the customer is and how the work is commissioned.
Garment manufacturing can require another code
NIC 141002 concerns manufacture of outerwear made from woven, knitted, crocheted or non-woven fabric, excluding specified categories. Other apparel products have their own entries within class 1410. A business that produces standard-size garments for wholesale or retail sale should therefore compare manufacturing codes rather than automatically using the custom-tailoring sub-class.
How to describe the activity
Use wording such as “Custom tailoring and made-to-measure garment stitching for individual customers.” This immediately separates the business from ready-made garment manufacturing and from a retail clothing shop. If the enterprise also sells garments, produces wholesale stock or provides B2B stitching for manufacturers, those revenue lines deserve separate classification.
For a conventional tailoring shop focused on personal customer orders, 141006 is the strongest NIC 2025 match. The more the business moves toward standardized production or manufacturer subcontracting, the more important it becomes to compare adjacent apparel-manufacturing codes.