Shanghai Expat

Lifestyle Recommendations - Tailored suits

lliu316 - Apr 30, 2005 - 02:35 PM
Post subject: Tailored suits

I need to find a place to make a few sets of suit, can’t find any thing that would fit me off the rack anywhere in China. I am not looking for expensive Italian designer’s crap, and I don’t have a whole month time to wait for the suits to be made. Do you guys have any good suggestions?

mgn44 - May 07, 2005 - 07:22 PM
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Fabric market. Cheap and cheerful.

sinned69 - May 08, 2005 - 08:13 AM
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BKK Thailand
you can email or fax your your order to any number of reputable tailors with all your measurements, they make the suits and then courier them to you anywhere in the world. most tailors there often do specials. eg. 3 suits [different fabrics] 2 shirts couple ties and a leather belt -for ~usd$199.

SH fabric market.
even if you go to the fabric market here select the fabric market & buy, then go to a tailor yourself, the craftsmanship just doesnt measure up [pun intended!]

mmd1227 - May 08, 2005 - 08:31 AM
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We have found that the tailor at stall #159 at the fabric market does outstanding work on suits!

Andreas - May 08, 2005 - 10:39 PM
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For more than 10 years I have my tailor in Hong Kong. i will never even try to find similar service and quality in mainland china. it does not exist !

cks69 - May 08, 2005 - 11:21 PM
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i must second andreas' post. No matter how you cut it suits in Shanghai don't compare to HK (i have three suits from HK and have had them for over 4 years - not a single problem with them the whole time - that goes for shirts as well). In Shanghai you really have three options to choose from:

1. Go to a stall in the fabric market and have them tailor a suit for you: fabric quality is poor, tailoring is also below average and you generally overpay for what you get. The suits and tailoring look cheap and the fabric falls apart with wear...

2. Go to one of the established tailors (dave's et. al): totally overpriced - pay almost 50% more than you would in HK - why? can't be the labor --> they use imported fabrics which re-affirms points 1 and 3 (china fabrics suck).

3. Buy your fabrics at the fabric market and have an independent tailor do them for you: fabric quality is poor and the tailors generally can only do replicas. Ask them to do anything that requires imagination or out-of-the box thinking and you can forget about it...

Obviously these are my experiences. Others may have good experiences, but I have yet to see a good quality, reliable and reasonably priced suit in Shanghai.

Victorian - May 08, 2005 - 11:36 PM
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Andreas & cks69,

Which tailors do you two use in Hong Kong? What are the prices for a 2 piece suit?

Thanks!

mmd1227 - May 09, 2005 - 04:55 AM
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for years my husband had all his suits made by Danny Tam at british tailors in Hong Kong, but in the last year he has had 4 suits made at # 159 at the fabric market, and he has found the fabric(ask for best quality) and tailoring to be the same level as Hong Kong. # 159 is the only booth he would go to.....

cks69 - May 09, 2005 - 09:36 AM
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ive actually been using "Sam's" on nathan road...2 piece suit ranges from around 2800-3200 (can also go higher, but thats the most you really need to pay)

mmd1227: im curious now...how much do you pay for these suits? and have they held up well?

lliu316 - May 10, 2005 - 05:49 PM
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Ok this may sound very stupid, especially from someone been living in SH for 8 months, where is the fabric market???

uglyamerican - May 10, 2005 - 06:15 PM
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Fourth option:
go to warehouse somewhere past the Russian Consulate and purchase imported Australian 100% wool fabric for 200 RMB, have Tony the tailor come to your office take your measurements and make a replica of your Hugo Boss or Prada suit with it. Couple of fittings later you look like a prince.
Total cost 700 RMB
Can you beat that?

cks69 - May 10, 2005 - 06:53 PM
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Yeah, hook a brotha up!

mmd1227 - May 10, 2005 - 06:56 PM
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At the fabric market # 159, my husband paid 550 rmb for a nice wool suit, 650 rmb for tuxedo...yes, they ahve held up very well, and fit perfectly!!!!

lliu316 - May 11, 2005 - 09:13 PM
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once again, where is the fabric market?

rennie - May 11, 2005 - 09:33 PM
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I don't have the exact address, but the fabric market is in Huang Pu District at a place called Dong Jia Du (very near the river). There are lots of fabric stalls there - literally a market selling nothing but fabric. I actually thought the fabric looked good, but have never bought anything there before.

lliu316 - May 13, 2005 - 02:35 PM
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thanks, I will go check it out this weekend.

benkloepfer - May 13, 2005 - 02:42 PM
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ugly american, is "tony the tailor" just a general reference to shanghai tailors, or a real person?
-B

benkloepfer - May 15, 2005 - 06:17 PM
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For all those interested:
My wife and I went to the fabric market this morning and headed straight for #159. The salesman was nice and spoke english, he seemed to know his stuff and helped me pick out what to get without being pushy. We picked out fabric for two light weight summer suits, agreed on a price of 550 RMB for each (including fabric). The tailor took my measurements, and gave me a sample of each fabric to take with me. The tailor also does shirts but they don't sell cotton at #159 so they sent me next door the pick out shirt fabric. Shirts cost 90 rmb a piece.

All in all we got a total bill for 1370 rmb for two suits and three shirts. (we paid 500 rmb for deposit)
I will write back in two weeks after I pick up the goods and will let you know if the tailoring was done well.

Regards,
B

mmd1227 - May 17, 2005 - 05:14 AM
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I think you will be very happy with your suits. My husband has not had shirts made there, in fact, we did not know that they did shirts there and we have used him for a year and a half!

MYCarcoal - May 20, 2005 - 04:25 PM
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i have made suits from #159 before ... fit ok except that the shoulders seem too straight for my liking, even without padding ... looks a bit like american footballer jersey Smile

...

TBJ - May 20, 2005 - 04:41 PM
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What a bloody bargain eh....I've got a few shirts done there already. But according to what I hear, the locals (not all of course Rolling Eyes

) refuse to get their shirts done there because they think it's low class and they'd prefer forking out the moolah to get branded goods, which incidentally is made in China as well Rolling Eyes

But that fabric market is a haven for ppl who appreciate tailored clothes.

Benoist_Shanghai - June 18, 2005 - 11:56 AM
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benkloepfer wrote:

Soooo?

b.

The_Shanghai_Stinker - June 18, 2005 - 12:33 PM
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Yeah .. soo ....

stalker01 - July 17, 2005 - 03:51 AM
Post subject: dongjiadu not too shabby

I just picked up some custom clothing today at the market. Stall #223 I had two shirts made from scratch (no copying). Very impressed with the results. 80 rmb each. (70each for my buddy...he's shorter, less fabric). At Stall #83 tailor Lawrence spoke pretty good english and hooked me up with a masterpiece 2-piece suit for 450 rmb... The suit fits quite well. This is great for me, for my broad shoulder/small waist combo makes it's hard to find a good suit off the rack.

My only concern with both the shirts and the suit is that they are not of the highest quality fabric. This is a critique of the market in general, not these specific stalls...i searched for the best i could find. They are great for casual wear, but if i'm going to this trouble for custom made clothing, i would love to find top-knotch fabric like you would find at the ultra-chic stores. If you know what I mean.

Can i go anywhere else in town to get the best fabric? Or can anyone recommend a specific stall at the market for the best fabic? Or should i pick some up in HK?

benkloepfer - July 17, 2005 - 10:08 AM
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Sorry, I said I'd write back to tell if the tailoring was done well, but forgot and have been on vacation for awhile.

Yes, it was done well. The fit was good, only the tailor screwed up one of the shirts and put the sleeve button on the wrong side, we had to go back again the next day to get the shirts after he fixed it.

Some people have made some comments in other posts that the tailoring and material was sub-standard. And now I see where they are coming from. I was totally happy with what I paid and what I received (nice fitting and good looking suits made from decent fabric at a small price). But I also felt like these suits were the best that the fabric market at Dong Jia Du had to offer. And if you want something really, really nice then you might be out of luck at the market and would have to look elsewhere.

Once again, good suits, good price, good tailoring, but nothing amazing.
-Ben

scottyg - Mar 10, 2008 - 06:21 PM
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Has the tailoring situation improved since 2005?

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