Lizzy Larson
Imad Salha, a refugee from Syria and tailor.
Imad Salha, a refugee from Syria, has managed to use his tailoring skills here in the U.S. His hope is to open his own factory, ‘same here as Syria.’
A customer stands on an alteration platform in front of two full-length mirrors in Imad Salha’s tailor and design shop. The man wonders aloud which dress pant styles are currently fashionable, while Salha bends down and slowly pulls a few sewing pins from a purple pin cushion. He cuffs the ankles of the pants, stands up and gestures downwards, silently asking if the customer likes the tailored look. The man likes what he sees.
Salha Tailoring and Wedding Designs is located within a modest suite in a multi-tenant office building on Watts Road. Salha, a tailor and clothing designer from Syria with more than 30 years of experience, came to the United States in 2023 as a refugee. He opened his shop in 2024 and sees his business as his path towards rebuilding his life in Madison.
“I want more work,” he says in Arabic into his phone, as he is still learning to speak English. After a moment, he turns his phone towards me, presenting a written English translation. I read the translation out loud, then ask him to expand on what “more work” means to him. The translation service turns my spoken English into written Arabic. “I want a clothing factory, same here as Syria,” he responds.
Salha was born in Damascus, Syria’s capital city, in 1976. He grew up in the Jobar neighborhood, where he says he grew passionate about fashion design, tailoring and women’s clothing at a young age. As an adult, Salha owned a clothing factory in Jobar, employing more than 200 people. At his factory, Salha was more than a tailor — he also designed intricate women’s gowns, decorated with vibrant threading, detailed beading and layered fabrics.
In 2012, a year after civil war broke out in Syria, Salha’s factory was bombed. Nobody died in the bombing, but Salha lost his equipment, his designs and his income source.
Salha soon fled Syria for the neighboring country of Jordan. Five months later, his wife and children crossed the border to join him. He worked to establish a small clothing factory in Amman — Jordan’s capital city — “to make ends meet.” The Salhas remained in Amman for 10 years, unable to return to Syria due to the violent civil war that continued to rage.
In 2023, the Salhas were granted official refugee status, and with the help of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, left Jordan for Madison on Aug. 22, 2023.
Salha says the only items he brought to Madison were a bolt of blue satin fabric and a pattern he had drawn to one day turn the fabric into a dress. That dress now hangs in the front of his shop — a metaphor for turning his displacement into design.
The Salhas were resettled in Madison with the help of Jewish Social Services of Madison, a local nonprofit that, in part, provides refugee resettlement services. The group helped the family find housing, figure out how to use public transportation and navigate legal documents. The family was also provided a mentor. Today, that mentor, Carol van Deelen, continues to be an integral part of the Salhas’ life — she volunteers at Salha Tailoring and Wedding Designs, doing paperwork, making appointments and keeping the books.
“Imad is a very honorable person,” says Van Deelen. The Salhas, she adds, have “become kind of like family.”
In 2024, Salha received a loan from Jewish Social Services of Madison and a $3,000 loan through Kiva, which provides financial help to entrepreneurs around the world. With that money, Salha opened his shop.
Most of Salha’s current work involves tailoring men’s and women’s apparel, but he says his true passion is design. He dreams of designing one-of-a-kind gowns and custom suits in Madison as he once did in Damascus, but has found that American tastes differ.
“There are greater challenges here in terms of designing,” he says. “Given the prevailing taste in Syria, evening and wedding dresses have lots of embellishments and fabrics. Here, taste is simple, not too many fabrics.”
“For a wedding, I want to design for the bride and the groom,” he continues with a smile.
Lauren Hafeman
Imad Salha’s blue satin gown.
Salha’s gowns were popular in his native Syria. He brought this fabric with him to Madison.
Salha works part-time at Gallo Men’s Clothier on Monroe Street, but says he hopes to one day work at his own shop full-time. He set a goal to begin designing more custom clothing within the next three months.
“I like living in Madison,” he says. “I hope I make my customers happy so I can get more customers, and maybe move locations.”
“He would love to move to a space with more visibility, with foot traffic and windows on the street,” adds Van Deelen.
His current location has one advantage: It is located directly across the street from the mosque inside the Madinah Community Center, where he prays five times a day.
“The ultimate hope is that his business will grow,” Van Deelen says. “It’s typical for refugees not to be able to use their skills in a new country. It’s amazing that he is trying to.”
A few weeks later, I return to Salha’s shop with Ahmed Alamidi, a member of Epic’s Arabic translation team, who volunteered to translate this story in order to fact-check items with Salha.
With the help of Alamidi, we also discuss the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and ICE actions in Minneapolis, which occurred after our initial interview.
Salha acknowledges the violence, but says “ICE is not here,” adding, “I feel safe in Madison.”
