Experience with A-Man in HK

On vacation in HK and decided to get a suit with A-Man after doing a bit of research here and at SF. I opted for A-Man over Chan based on an interesting comparison thread with pics of suits made by both tailors.
A-Man is located on the mezzanine level of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central, Hong Kong.
Through the lobby and up a semi-circular staircase takes you past a couple of high end jewelers and a custom shoe shop to A-Man storefront. Walking is like walking into a small library in a private club: wall to wall wooden cases filled with suit and shirt cloth bundles, display cases with cufflinks and a small tie case. Norman appears to be the GM and he and the tailors and assistants all look like well dressed guys whom you've just interrupted as they were about to start playing Mahjong.
I told Norman what I wanted (high armholes, SB, 2B, SV, pick stitching, ticket pocket and surgeon's cuffs, with two pairs of flat front pants, no cuff, side adjusters and a cash pocket in a 9oz 3 season cloth). My wife and I looked through 4 books, mostly 120 and 150s from Barberis, Piana, S&H and a few others. Based on what I already have a home we narrowed it down to a lovely medium grey glen plaid, a blue herringbone and a really gorgeous charcoal double pin 150. The latter was almost double the cost of the other two and given that we couldn't decide between them I opted to order the glen plaid with an option for the blue herringbone if I was happy with the finished product.
I told Norman that we had 7 days and that I expected at least 3 fittings.
He agreed that he could get the first suit completed to my specifications, but that he'd rather have only one tailor work on my garments and concurred that we hold off on any other suit purchase until the first was completed. I wore one of my first Mr. Ned's 8oz LP tan suits to A-Man's, which they completely ignored. They took about 40 individual measurements, copying them down into a ledger with my business card and home details listed, Norman and the tailor chatting away with each other in rapid fire Cantonese. We then looked through boxes of buttons and settled on some nice dark horn ones.
I also ordered a shirt in pale lavender with a soft blue stripe, french placket, mid spread collar, no darts, rounded double cuff, slim fit and 3mm MOP buttons.
I was asked to return the next day for my first fitting.
Next morning my wife and I took the incredibly clean and efficient MTR (subway) to Central HK from Kowloon and to my surprise they had a fairly advanced basted fit jacket with sleeves ready for me. They discovered that my right shoulder is slightly lower than the left and set about marking areas for adjustmentto balance everything out.
The pants were also far along enough for me to try on, and we settled on a fit that made us all happy..
Two days later and my shirt was ready for a first fit, with the suit starting to get closer to what I wanted. Further corrections were made and I settled on the amount of cuff I wanted to show (between a 1/4 and 1/2 inch). The shirt needed some adjustments, the sleeves were too long, the chest was good, but the body needed to be slimmer and more fitted, the cuffs were perfect (L>R to accomodate for my watch) as was the collar. The shoulder seam appears to be worn lower in HK and than we do back home riding a good 1/2 inch below the top of the shoulder.
I'm heading in tomorrow for my third fitting prior to doing a little sight seeing and I should have the suit by Saturday.
Overall a great experience, so far. I wish I were staying longer as I could assure myself that he has my pattern down before leaving. Based on the work so far I'd say their work is very high quality, with good cutting skills and a good understanding of what needs to be corrected. Knowing what you want helps lead them further, they readily accept my and my wife's input.
Once we're done and I'm back State side I'll get some pics up.
Cheers,

Very interesting report. Look forward to your thoughts on the final product and the pics.

Sorry, Norman is not the GM, Poon is.
But I like that: " he and the tailors and assistants all look like well dressed guys whom you've just interrupted as they were about to start playing Mahjong."

Originally Posted by sweep

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Very interesting report. Look forward to your thoughts on the final product and the pics.

+1

What are they charging you ?

I just want to compare against what I have paid them

the customs shoe shop beside it is Mayer. hope you can post pics of the suit and shirt soon.

Just picked up the final product.
The shirt is very well made, the sleeves and body were
adjusted perfectly.
But the suit is a thing of beauty. From the pick stitching to the break in the pants.
I'll get some pics up in the next 24 hours.
The suit is 9500 HK dollars, about 1200 in US.
I ordered a second suit and a couple more shirts.
I'm impressed with the workmanship and fit
Cheers
j

Originally Posted by lichmd

Click to expand...

Just picked up the final product.
The shirt is very well made, the sleeves and body were
adjusted perfectly.
But the suit is a thing of beauty. From the pick stitching to the break in the pants.
I'll get some pics up in the next 24 hours.
The suit is 9500 HK dollars, about 1200 in US.
I ordered a second suit and a couple more shirts.
I'm impressed with the workmanship and fit
Cheers
j

Sounds great I look forward to some pictures. Chan is nice, too, but it's good to see some coverage for other HK tailors.

Thanks for the report, looking forward to your pics.

Thanks for the very informative post. I am only surprised that it took A-Man until the first fitting to discover that your right shoulder is lower than the left since that's true of almost everybody who is right handed. It's one of the first things Patrick Chu observed when he first measured me for Chan.

Although I am very happy with Chan, it is still a bit of a pity that A-Man doesn't do U.S. tours. I have the vague impression they used to, at least on a limited basis.

Having a bit of trouble with my camera this morning, I'll take the pics later.

As for pricing: 9500 HK is for a suit with one pair of pants, an extra 2300 HK gets you two pairs, Shirts range from 800-1500 HK, CMT is 7000 HK per suit, 2300 per pair of pants and about 4700 HK for a blazer. For CMT he requires 3.2 m of cloth for a suit, 1.6 m for pants and 1.9 m for a jacket.

JL, I may have misspoken (or written) I became aware of his discovery of my right should stance when I asked about the drape of the back of the jacket and they informed us they were making adjustments to balance out the right shoulder being lower. It's possible and probable that they noticed during intial measurements and just didn't bring it up.

Pics later today.
Cheers,
J

I had a couple of suits made from A-Man last month, a 2 piece with extra trousers from their house cloth for $11,000 (grey with light blue pin stripe) and a 3 piece for $13,000 form Harrisons Havana line (dark navy with purple pin stripe)

I really wanted to go for Navy with Pink Chalk stripe from Harrisons Multi Millionaire Cashmere but decided to take a cheaper route. Maybe next time, i figured that one would have cost closer to $17,000 for a 2 piece considering Harrisons quoted me wholesale prices at GBP 300 per metre.

I have not tried Chan's but I am keen to give them a try, the guys from A-Man did not have much to say about them except they are more expensive. In HK no one I know has even heard of Chan. To be honest as soon as you mention to someone they are located in one of those arcades off Nathan Rd, you would get a raised eyebrow. Considering these locations are favoured by the Indians.

It always surprises me how fast these guys can knock a suit out at, although there is far less handiwork in HK suits that those from S.R, it makes me feel that S.R's claim of spending weeks making suits is just a marketing ploy and they too can make a suit within a week with 3 fittings if they choose to.

Christian

I look forward to seeing the pics of your suits

ive always been wondering this. I know Bespoke is a term reserved for SR tailoring houses, but would you say the HK tailors like Chan and A-Man are closer to that rather than MTM? because the last MTM i had done did not have anything close to 40 measurements, i think they just did arm length, shoulder, chest, jacket waist, length of coat, rise of pants etc but no where near 40

Both Chan and A-Man make individualized patterns for their clients. Thus, they are bespoke.

On the previous post, I was always under the impression that A-Man and Chan were very close in pricing, with A-Man being, if anything a tad more expensive. I think Baroman is more expensive than either. All the HK residents who post regularly in this forum seem very familiar with Chan. In any event, Chan is moving this month, perhaps to a more upscale locale. If so, I hope it doesn't affect their pricing appreciably.