Took the plunge.....

[Chaperon]

So - I'm in Hong Kong today on business, which concluded a bit earlier than planned (to a good conclusion). I come here more or less annually, and have for some years.

I find the hotel is smack in the middle of a row of maybe 30 or more custom tailors. So I say to myself, "Self - time to try a bespoke shirt. You're here with the time, and can get a fitting."

Finding the right shop seemed to be all the battle so I cruised up and down and into and out of the various micromalls and small shops you will find all over HK.

I immediately ruled out any shops with street barkers, some of whom are darned persistant. (Hey, sailor! Wanta buy a shirt?) They did everything but physically shove you into the shop. Prices ran as low as 100 $HK (about 13.50 $US right now), or lower if you bought several or a suit with the shirt or similar deals.

Other shops were empty of customers and had a hangdog look about them. Dust on fabric bolts is probably not a good thing. Hard to decide why of course. Bad marketing of a good product? Ugly fabrics? Just plain no-good, or?

I did note one shop which was full of some lively Germans or Danes (I was not sure which) all of whom were ordering a good bit. I had to wait for service as the staff as quite busy. One of the Europeans mentioned when I asked him that he had been buying there for eight years or more and was happy with the results. They were a well dressed group for sure.

So - either this shop was clever enough to hire a happy crew of Euro-shills to lure customers or I had found my place to try out the modest purchase of a single shirt. It helped some that the shop been there since 1962 also.

I had noted that the prices were higher there, and at some of the other shops I'd seen. No problem with that if the value is there. I'm not looking for a cheap shirt - I'm looking for a good shirt. Standard price of a single was 280 $HK (37.83 $US) plus 50 $HK (6.75 $US) for shipping to the US. His price break was at a purchase of eight shirts, where two of the eight were then free (buy 6 get 8). Lots of fabrics to choose from - I picked a light blue and light gold small check (100% cotton) as I knew it would play well with what I already had.

I got measured head to toe and asked a good many questions about fit and intended use of the shirt. I picked a collar style and a cuff style, with no monogram, thanks anyhow.

This is the first non-rack shirt I've ever tried. I got the bug from reading here and also from knowing that was how my grandfather purchased all his shirts, slacks, suits, etc. Turnaround time is a standard three days, but expidited service is also possible I think. Three days works, because I have to stop in Tokyo for the next four before returning, so it should beat me home.

I'm pretty sure I'll like the result, but I'm not sure this gent would be my normal go-to tailor. Many of the fabrics were a bit too European in flavor for my old Southern eyes, but he did have enough that worked I suppose.

I'll keep you posted.

By the way I had the hotel do laundry for me today as I am on the road for a spell and it came back while I was writing this -

Q. What result do you get in Hong Kong when you check "Starch" on the hotel laundry ticket?
A. Everything is starched - socks, underwear, shirts, slacks - all of it. My Socks now stand for themselves. Crunchy underwear does not seem the most comfortable choice one could make either.

 

[Nashoba]

I remember when I was a child and my father was traveling alot for business that he would always come home from trips to the far east with new suits. He used to travel to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Korea a few times a year and early in his business career he established himself with a tailor in I believe Hong Kong. So the couple of times a year that he would be out there he would stop by his tailor and get fitted for new shirts and suits and then would pick them up on his next trip out there. I must say I love those suits even now years later they are still in amazing condition and are impecibly constructed. The only bad thing for my dad is he has no ability to envision fabric as a finished product like my mother and I can (my mother was in fashion for years and I learned to sew at 5) and since he didn't have my mother with him to envision the finished product from a bolt of fabric all of his suits are the same variation of either navy or black subtle pinstripe. [huh] He once mentioned to me how he wished he would have been more daring and chosen some different fabrics. It made me wish it wasn't so hard to find a tailor like that here in the states. I had a good one in California but even she was only really good for alterations. I havn't even been able to find a good tailor for alterations yet here in TN. Sigh. Enjoy the shirts, I'm sure they'll be wonderful!

 

[Zig2k143]

Great story you write will.... very funny ending...

 

[jgilbert]

could have checked extra heavy!

I know you were in search of a shirt, what all did you seein the way of suits?

 

[Jovan]

Not as bad as the horror story of Hong Kong hotel laundry that was told on Style Forum. The guy merely had clothes lying about somewhere near the hamper. Without even asking, room service took his clothes and laundered them all when he was away, discolouring many of them and shrinking some stuff you weren't even supposed to machine wash. He got a bill back, reduced because of the discolouration. I'm not sure how this ended... but in any case, be careful.

 

[gluegungeisha]

Hah, funny ending!

I had some nice clothes custom tailored while I was in India, for even cheaper...the equivalent of about $4.00. It's all traditional Indian garb, not the kind of clothes I wear back home obviously, but it's nice to now have my own wardrobe for when I go back. All of my Western clothes were stolen anyway, haha!

 

[Chaperon]

Suits

In answer to the question in re suits, there were a lot of suit materials there to chose from.

One of the Danes or Germans, or who ever they were was getting a second fitting done on a quite nice looking brown muted check number. It seemed an autumn weight fabric, certainly not tropical in feeling or hand, so I would guess they are used to making for other climates and cultural standards.

I looked more at the shirt fabrics as I had only limited time and the shop was pretty crowded aslo, which made looking somewhat harder to do.

I think suits were a mainstay as were the shirts. I asked about slacks as an item and got a "if that's what you want, ok" response, so I think the requests for pants-only are fairly small.

Lots of greys, navys and such of course (all the usual suspects) but I did note some more interesting items like the brown check noted above as well.
Wool was the order the day for suits - the few bolts I did examine were fine wool, 100%. Shirts were all cotton, with one bolt of a white linen also.

I'm back in the US now after a few days in Japan following the Hong Kong / China stops. I was pleased to see suits are still the order of the day in Japan with about 95% of the men wearing them during business hours. Only trouble was they were all pretty interchangeable. Navy or grey solids with the odd rouge wearing chalk stripes (there is always a radical). As many (not all certainly) Japanese men are around the same height it gave a too-uniform apperance to my Western eyes. They seemed to all dress from the same closet.

I decided I needed a tie to go with a navy / burgandy small check shirt I had with me and went to buy an appropriate solid navy tie. I discovered after trying three shops that solid ties were pretty much unavailable in Tokyo. Neither did I find prints - everything was regimental stripes. All of them. Your choice of colors and stripe widths, but - stripes one and all.

Dressing by formula. Blue or grey today? Hmm. And which stripe to wear? Decisions, decisions. Interesting.

 

[jgilbert]

Thanks

Thanks for the review. Was just interested in the rest of the shop.

intesting thoughts on Japan.

 

[Fu Manchu]

Custom Shirts in HK

I've been to HK quite a few times over the past few years (it's just a hop across the Taiwan Strait, after all) and have always been unable to decide where to go for a bespoke suit/shirt. One day, however, when I've got some bucks, I'll go here:

http://www.ascotchang.com/

They only make shirts, but gosh they do it well.

You're pretty right on about the dull, soulcrushing uniformity of Japanese suits. I think that gents in HK suffer from similar sartorial shortsightedness.

 

[Undertow]

That's very interesting about Japan's "dress code". How fortunate/unfortunate. Fortunate that the men in Tokyo dress well every day (rather than some of the slobs I work with) but unfortunate that they're not changing it up now and then.

They probably wear really bold socks.

 

[Chaperon]

Japanese Rebels

You've just hit on how I tell how to approach the various folks I work with there.

Black socks, Japanese corporate uniform = speak of no new ideas least they panic.

Tone-on-ton patterned socks, other-than-completely-boring tie = vaguely refer to new ideas.

No suit jacket, no tie and/or zippy socks = my target for springing new product ideas. Also odds are he/she has lived abroad.

Thanks also for the Ascot Chang site - very interesting !