dibenetto
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2007
- Messages
- 100
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Really want to understand why WW CHAN gets so much praise for his suits
and jantzen so much for his shirts (i know and understand they are cheap and great value) but still at the end of the day where is jantzen standing on the quality side for the suit tailoring,hand working,finishing etc (not the styling part!! we all understand they never get what you REALLY wanted and all the little details they don't get right {they're not Italians after all})
and comparison with the full ''shanghai'' tailoring from WW CHAN that is suppose to be incredible and entirely done by hand.
BTW after 2 years of lazy research and pushy questions with a lot of tailors in Hongkong and shanghai, i got to some pretty clear conclusions:
the shanghai tailoring is pretty literally DEAD. Beside WW CHAN store i haven't heard of anybody doing a proper handmade full bespoke, let alone an English speaking fella' to talk to........most of the tailors trained in the golden era are dead or retired or flew to hongkong with the revolution and the MAO shirts became fashionable....
in hongkong the work is internally judged as follow:
-Cantonese work (the cheapest) is pretty much a flat construction.the lapel have minimum work done and little roll......this work is typical and widely used and available locally and for export. (after all too few customers know what to look for..........)
-shanghai work which will cost you about 50% extra over a Cantonese coat. (the pants seems to be quite similar for everybody any infos on it is welcome) the work is hard to get take more time and is always outsourced to individual tailors. the extra work include but is not limited to: those hundreds of stitches on the lapel (over a 1000 no?) which are done 2~3 rows at a time ironed,left to rest to take shape,then another 2~3 rows;
the fabrics and canvassing are strictly shrunken in water 24 hours to make sure no shrinking afterward will destroy the suit (how can a tailor do a proper suit in 24~48hours!!)
-the last work quality is called shanghai A+ and those capable of doing it are rare,expensive,long.
virtually all tailors capable of doing this kind of work were trained in shanghai before the revolution. ALL of them are old,many dead. Those people will work to the last breath,many do it from home.
also most if not all of them are controlled by big names in hongkong, including WW CHAN and others,smaller,lesser known operations. more for the local hongkong tycoon than for the American businessman visiting and pressing for time....
and jantzen so much for his shirts (i know and understand they are cheap and great value) but still at the end of the day where is jantzen standing on the quality side for the suit tailoring,hand working,finishing etc (not the styling part!! we all understand they never get what you REALLY wanted and all the little details they don't get right {they're not Italians after all})
and comparison with the full ''shanghai'' tailoring from WW CHAN that is suppose to be incredible and entirely done by hand.
BTW after 2 years of lazy research and pushy questions with a lot of tailors in Hongkong and shanghai, i got to some pretty clear conclusions:
the shanghai tailoring is pretty literally DEAD. Beside WW CHAN store i haven't heard of anybody doing a proper handmade full bespoke, let alone an English speaking fella' to talk to........most of the tailors trained in the golden era are dead or retired or flew to hongkong with the revolution and the MAO shirts became fashionable....
in hongkong the work is internally judged as follow:
-Cantonese work (the cheapest) is pretty much a flat construction.the lapel have minimum work done and little roll......this work is typical and widely used and available locally and for export. (after all too few customers know what to look for..........)
-shanghai work which will cost you about 50% extra over a Cantonese coat. (the pants seems to be quite similar for everybody any infos on it is welcome) the work is hard to get take more time and is always outsourced to individual tailors. the extra work include but is not limited to: those hundreds of stitches on the lapel (over a 1000 no?) which are done 2~3 rows at a time ironed,left to rest to take shape,then another 2~3 rows;
the fabrics and canvassing are strictly shrunken in water 24 hours to make sure no shrinking afterward will destroy the suit (how can a tailor do a proper suit in 24~48hours!!)
-the last work quality is called shanghai A+ and those capable of doing it are rare,expensive,long.
virtually all tailors capable of doing this kind of work were trained in shanghai before the revolution. ALL of them are old,many dead. Those people will work to the last breath,many do it from home.
also most if not all of them are controlled by big names in hongkong, including WW CHAN and others,smaller,lesser known operations. more for the local hongkong tycoon than for the American businessman visiting and pressing for time....