Tailor-made suits

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AlexT

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Joined: May 05, 2006
Posts: 33
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: July 13, 2006 - 03:43 AM
Post subject: Tailor-made suits

Hi all,

I recently arrived in Shanghai and will be starting work at the beginning of August. In the mean time I would like to get a couple of suits/shirts tailor-made. Can anyone recommend any places that don't try to rip off foreigners and provide good quality products?

Also, what kind of price range should I expect/negotiate for?

Thanks,

Alex

bigusdickus

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Joined: Dec 04, 2005
Posts: 220
Location: In flagrante delicto...oops!
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Posted: July 13, 2006 - 07:56 AM

I've had cotton shirts made in Shanghai ranging in price from 80-600RMB! The lower end of the pricing scale will buy a decently tailored cotton shirt from the Fabric Market and at the other a Sea Island cotton version excellently tailored. Which end of the scale do you prefer? BTW I haven't really found a middle priced offering in the city.

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greenmark

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Joined: July 28, 2005
Posts: 554
Location: Location Location
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Posted: July 13, 2006 - 09:30 AM

I had a suit made by Dave's Custom Tailoring
#6 Lane 288 Wuyuan Lu between Wulumuqi Lu and Wukang Lu

Excellent service. 5000RMB for a custom made suit that fits perfectly and is made - good material, very good stitching and buttons. Best suit I've ever owned - much, much better than GBP500 suits I bought off-the-peg when I lived in London. I plan to go there again sometime soon for another suit. He also does shirts.

You can get other suits elsewhere to match your budget - if you want something cheaper you can pick up suits for RMB2000 from department stores or less from the fabric market. You can even spend RMB20k for Armani suits, though foreign goods of over about 10k get hit with a hefty luxury import tax and so it would be cheaper to get them abroad.

If you go to Dave's, it helps if you have some idea of what sort of suit cut you want (number of buttons, vents, straight or plait trousers) though they'll talk you through each step of the process.

AlexT

Lurker

Joined: May 05, 2006
Posts: 33
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: July 13, 2006 - 11:43 AM

Thanks for the great info guys. Does you or anyone have any recommendations about lower budget places? The only reason I ask is that when I lived in HK, the tailors were offering ridiculously low deals such as 3,500RMB - 5,000RMB (depending on styling) for packages like 2 suits and a couple of shirts (which would be made in the mainland).

Didn't go for it at the time, but would be nice to know of anything similar here (although I'm sure the quality won't be quite as good as Dave's).

Cheers,

Alex