WW Chan Shanghai Suit Results

I stopped by WW Chan recently in Shanghai and commissioned a navy suit in serge fabric from Holland and Sherry's Target Gabardine collection:
http://www.hollandandsherry.com/apparel/collections.aspx?season=SS2011&details=HS1129

The total cost, including the fabric, was around $2200.

(As an aside, the Shanghai WW Chan on Maoming Road allows you to bring your own fabric. A two-piece suit is ~6000 RMB, or ~$1000, which I think is a good deal.)

Though I had four fittings (including the last one, where I collected the suit), I feel like the trousers and back of the jacket could have been better. Here are some pictures; perhaps you guys can help me find things to fix.

I've attached the gallery.

I'm mainly concerned about the wrinkles in the lower back, and the rippling on the trousers. Are these problems easily fixed? Should I even bother fixing them?

Sorry, by the way, for the shirt collar.


























If you want larger versions of these pictures, they're on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5xoodiw4g4qwjcm/1EwzQwcuSM.

Thanks!

Wow. It's hard to believe that was made by Chan, even the Shanghai branch. Apologies for the doubt, but would you be able to post a pic of the labels, preferably with the dates?

emptym said:

Wow. It's hard to believe that was made by Chan, even the Shanghai branch. Apologies for the doubt, but would you be able to post a pic of the label?

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Sure, the label is in the inside left pocket. Let me go take a picture now.

Here are the labels:










When I mentioned the rippling issue in the pants during collections, they claimed that the rippling was natural. He said that no ripples "might look good", but wouldn't be functional, since it would be "hard to sit down". At that point, I just paid and left; I thought that I would fix the problems in a later trip (or on their visit here).

No hard feerlings and others are more expert at such matters but that is not a good suit for Chan. They don't seem to have catered for your proportions. The pants for starters with the break etc. That suit needsa a lot of alteration IMO.

Thanks for the pics. We've had a bunch of shills for other tailors endorsing their own work and smearing others', so I just wanted to be sure.

Ya, that's not good. I'd ask them to fix the back and sleeves of the jacket and the pants. There's a long thread here "Show us Your Chan" that has much better looking results from Chan, albeit the HK branch.

Edit: looking at the larger pics, I notice your shoes are high and padded. That probably causes some of the wrinkles in the pants. You might try taking a pic w/ normal leather shoes and see how much of a difference it makes.

meister said:

No hard feerlings and others are more expert at such matters but that is not a good suit for Chan. They don't seem to have catered for your proportions. The pants for starters with the break etc. That suit needsa a lot of alteration IMO.

Click to expand...

Right; I was concerned about the break as well. They claimed that in China, the back of the pants touch the bottom of the shoes, which means there has to be a break in front. I'll probably get this fixed with a local tailor. Do you have any other suggestions? (And, of course no hard feelings! You're helping me fix my suit!)

emptym said:

Thanks for the pics. We've had a bunch of shills for other tailors endorsing their own work and smearing others', so I just wanted to be sure.

Ya, that's not good. I'd ask them to fix the back and sleeves of the jacket and the pants. There's a long thread here "Show us Your Chan" that has much better looking results from Chan, albeit the HK branch.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's pretty ridiculous. I can post the receipt later on if needed.

For the jacket and pants, should I just show them the rippling? Can you elaborate what's wrong with the sleeves? Oh, and I've also been concerned with the shoulders; one of them sticks out more and "ends later" than the other. Is that a problem?

Also, how should I go about getting these fixed? I'm in SF and can show up for their tour in April. Will I have to ship the clothes back to them, or can they just take them at that time?

Thanks a lot for your guys' help!



meister said:

No hard feerlings and others are more expert at such matters but that is not a good suit for Chan. They don't seem to have catered for your proportions. The pants for starters with the break etc. That suit needsa a lot of alteration IMO.

Click to expand...

I suppose even the best can produce a lemon or a "Friday afternoon" ocassionally.

Mind you doesn't Chan Shanghai share a lot of facilities and production with Sam's Tailor Shanghai? I think this was dicussed on AAAC a while back. So the quality may not be as good as Chan HK? It could be a Sam's suit but paying the Chan price for it.



emptym said:

Edit: looking at the larger pics, I notice your shoes are high and padded. That probably causes some of the wrinkles in the pants. You might try taking a pic w/ normal leather shoes and see how much of a difference it makes.

Click to expand...

Got it. Those shoes actually aren't mine; they belong to my roommate, and I borrowed them for the pictures. I'm getting a pair of Kent Wang's in a week or two, so I'll try again with those.

Thanks for your help!

Looks so off that it makes me wonder if you aren't just standing funny for the camera.

If not, here's what I see:

1. Jacket front balance too short and rear balance too long.
2. Sleeve pitch is off or rear balance is too long.
3. Pants hem and rear balance are both too long.

It looks like a random off-the-rack suit. Virtually nothing is right that should be. Definitely needs attention.



davdh said:

Right; I was concerned about the break as well. They claimed that in China, the back of the pants touch the bottom of the shoes, which means there has to be a break in front. I'll probably get this fixed with a local tailor. ...
For the jacket and pants, should I just show them the rippling? Can you elaborate what's wrong with the sleeves? Oh, and I've also been concerned with the shoulders; one of them sticks out more and "ends later" than the other. Is that a problem?

Also, how should I go about getting these fixed? I'm in SF and can show up for their tour in April. Will I have to ship the clothes back to them, or can they just take them at that time?...

Click to expand...

Regarding the break, they can (and should have) angled the pant hem so that it's lower in the back. Did they?
The upper rear of the sleeves has some wrinkles that could be cleaned up. Shoulders look OK to me, but I'm not really an expert. From the back it's pretty clear that you have a dropped right shoulder.

I'd definitely show up in April. Patrick has an expert eye and will quickly see and note any changes that need to be made. You'll just have to pay to send it to them and be w/o the suit for a month or two.

Good idea about the Kent Wang shoes. They look very good. I've been eyeing the suede slip ons for a while...

I think you're just standing over erect in the pictures. Assume your normal slouched posture, not your ideal posture, when taking the pics.

The balance of the jacket is off..they did not account for your low right shoulder.. the pitch of the sleeve is off in the back.. the pitch of the pants is off in the back..and that's just some of the issues..I am truly surprised. From what I see on here Chan is a bespoke maker that is highly regarded. This looks like a m2m gone bad like in the indochino thread..I will chalk it up as a mistake on their part..I would show them the pictures. I am sure when they see the end product, pride will kick in where they will want to fix it too make it look good for you. This was after four fittings? Wonder what it looked like after the third fitting..

MikeDT said:

Mind you doesn't Chan Shanghai share a lot of facilities and production with Sam's Tailor Shanghai? I think this was dicussed on AAAC a while back. So the quality may not be as good as Chan HK? It could be a Sam's suit but paying the Chan price for it.

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Yes, I hear they do. The difference, according to a forum member, is that Sam's jackets are all half-canvassed, while Chan's are fully-canvassed. The jacket I have is certainly fully canvassed.

It's certainly possible that besides the canvassing, everything else is "Sam's-level quality". I made sure they had their WW Chan label in it before I left, so I could always go to Patrick or somebody if there was a problem.

Do you know if Chan's jackets typically have the label on the inside of the pocket? I thought it was a little strange when I first saw it in there, but didn't think too much about it.

emptym said:

Regarding the break, they can (and should have) angled the pant hem so that it's lower in the back. Did they?
The upper rear of the sleeves has some wrinkles that could be cleaned up. Shoulders look OK to me, but I'm not really an expert. From the back it's pretty clear that you have a dropped right shoulder.

I'd definitely show up in April. Patrick has an expert eye and will quickly see and note any changes that need to be made. You'll just have to pay to send it to them and be w/o the suit for a month or two.

Click to expand...

Yes, I actually asked about the angled pant hem, which they claimed they had. Perhaps a little more angling is needed?

How successful are the alterations, usually? I'm not going to be happy if I pay to send it in, then only receive a marginally better jacket.

chocsosa said:

The balance of the jacket is off..they did not account for your low right shoulder.. the pitch of the sleeve is off in the back.. the pitch of the pants is off in the back..and that's just some of the issues..I am truly surprised. From what I see on here Chan is a bespoke maker that is highly regarded. This looks like a m2m gone bad like in the indochino thread..I will chalk it up as a mistake on their part..I would show them the pictures. I am sure when they see the end product, pride will kick in where they will want to fix it too make it look good for you. This was after four fittings? Wonder what it looked like after the third fitting..

Click to expand...

Right; they actually noticed the low right shoulder during the measurements; I thought they had accounted for it.

Now that I think about it, this was actually after three fittings. I had four appointments, but the first one was just measurements; it was followed by a basted, forward, and delivery. The time from measurement to delivery was around one week, likely because it was around Lunar new year and they wanted to get the suit out before their factory closed.

I actually went to Chan after reading how great they were on here, so I'm surprised at the end result. I'm going to try contacting [email protected] (unless if you guys have a better email address?) and seeing what happens; I'll be sure to keep you guys updated.

mafoofan said:

Looks so off that it makes me wonder if you aren't just standing funny for the camera.

If not, here's what I see:

1. Jacket front balance too short and rear balance too long.
2. Sleeve pitch is off or rear balance is too long.
3. Pants hem and rear balance are both too long.

It looks like a random off-the-rack suit. Virtually nothing is right that should be. Definitely needs attention.

Click to expand...

Great, thanks for the suggestions! I agree on all points.

hymo said:

I think you're just standing over erect in the pictures. Assume your normal slouched posture, not your ideal posture, when taking the pics.

I tried slouching a little, but the suit didn't get any better. I would love to try again if you think that's the problem. Thanks!

Click to expand...



davdh said:

I actually went to Chan after reading how great they were on here, so I'm surprised at the end result. I'm going to try contacting [email protected] (unless if you guys have a better email address?) and seeing what happens; I'll be sure to keep you guys updated.

Click to expand...

There's a general consensus amongst those who have used Chan since they first started till present (whom I know), that they've grown too big for their good.

I think that caution should be exercised when thinking that one will get a well fitting suit from them (commensurate with the price) based on the pictures of a few posters who used them a long time ago, or from posters who have the time to fly down to HK and get two-three fittings. Their work today (and on what I've gotten) has slid down the quality scale a fair bit.

mafoofan said:

Looks so off that it makes me wonder if you aren't just standing funny for the camera.

If not, here's what I see:

1. Jacket front balance too short and rear balance too long.
2. Sleeve pitch is off or rear balance is too long.
3. Pants hem and rear balance are both too long.

It looks like a random off-the-rack suit. Virtually nothing is right that should be. Definitely needs attention.

Click to expand...

Based on the pics, this looks to be true.

But, do post pictures if you manage to get shots of it when you're standing normally and not erect -- I think that might have affected the fit as well, and it seems to be the case since, from the pictures, it looks like it's cut for someone who has at least a more rounded back than what we're seeing in the picture.

Also, get out of those shoes and put on proper ones so we know how the shoes are impeding the hang of the trousers.

My main beef is that the silhouette of the coat looks ugly, and the quarters and how they overlap ...


Does anybody know how much handwork goes into Chan's coats? Sometimes the stitching on the inside of the coat look so neat, that it looks more machined than hand sewn.