Ljubljana: While many people believe that you must buy the wrong umbrella, one of Europe’s last umbrella makers, Maria Lah from Slovenia, proved her wrong.
While many umbrella repairers have closed shop due to millions of broken, cheap umbrellas being thrown away all over the world every year, this is attracting new customers who try to throw away less because of environmental problems.
“Now it’s modern,” Zontikli told AFP in his shop, filled with thousands of different parts, including old sewing machines and racks of ribs, hats and wire.
Founded by Lah’s father almost 60 years ago, this small shop on Ljubljana Street is one of the oldest shops in Slovenia.
He used to be a kindergarten teacher, he didn’t want to work there until his father got cataracts.
He reluctantly agreed to save the store, which had been operating for 14 years since 1991. After he died, the client encouraged him to continue.
“I said to myself, ‘Maria, you can’t give away knowledge that no one in Ljubljana has!’ – he says.
He explained that making or repairing an umbrella requires mastery of sewing and fine mechanical skills.
Some umbrellas, for example, take a few minutes to sew the ribs with a cover; others, with complex mechanisms or plastic parts, can take several weeks to disassemble and reassemble.
The mass production of umbrellas by thousands of different manufacturers and the constant demand from customers for new models also make maintenance difficult.
“You have to constantly learn,” Lah said.
He doesn’t know if his kids want to take over the store one day because he “has no intention of forcing it.”
While Lah is not afraid of the dry summer, which gives him time to clean the shop in addition to satisfied customers, he believes that the rain is his “best advertisement”.
Last year, the Alps, home to two million people, experienced the worst floods since independence in 1991, affecting two-thirds of the country, as scientists warn that extreme weather is becoming more severe as a result of climate change.
Lah, who refused to identify the business, said he can make money because customers and often friends from all over Slovenia bring their umbrellas to be repaired.
“I like to fix my umbrella,” Danika Tercon, a 70-year-old pensioner from Ljubljana, told AFP that people who throw away old umbrellas “don’t know what we are doing to our planet.”
Another customer, Katja Buda, who brought her mother’s umbrella to repair it, described “Lady Maria” as a “savior” and remembered her lost profession.
“Instead of refurbishing, we throw away old things that are of better quality,” said the 30-year-old philologist.
I love umbrellas. It can make a rainy day even better.”
Slovenia’s umbrella doctor weathers the economic storm
