The Hong Kong Tailors Thread

[Isolation]

Link?

 

[toomanytailors]

Hi Isolation,

Our blog is at http://toomanytailors.wordpress.com/

Please let us know if you have any comments!

TMT

 

[Penfold]

Here's the finished Y William Yu suit I posted somewhere upthread. I have yet to wear it in anger, as a) I have no need to wear smart clothes whilst fun-employed and b) HK is far too hot and humid right now anyway.

It's in a low-end Loro Piana Four Seasons 130 cloth.

When I first took it home I was very satisfied but after a couple of weeks of wardrobe time I'm now less so, and now I've photographed it I find myself considering returning it for some improvements. The intention was always for this to be a try-out and a voyage of discovery, and I chose Y William Yu in part because they were a fair bit cheaper than Chan/Yao - indeed the suit came in at only slightly more than a Simpson Sin/Lee Baron level. I'm losing a lot of weight out here so it didn't feel worth getting a $15-18k suit made just yet, though I mistakenly ordered a second pair of trousers which brought the price up.

Things I've discovered

1. I'm a bad photographer and an even worse model.
2. I have a forward stoop, a hunched back, protruding shoulder blade and very long arms.
3. I will pay a *lot* more attention to researching cloth before I do this again. Fortunately I've found Merino Brothers in TST so that's a start.
4. I made some individual design choices (3 buttons on the sleeve, no rear pockets on the trousers) that I was happy with but forgot to specify pleats.

5. The jacket appears short in the pictures but my body and arms are quite long in proportion to my height (6' 1"). It covers my bottom, no word of a lie.

Anway, here are photographs. Comments welcome, will x-post in Tailors Fit & Feedback probably.



























Edit - forgot to say Y William Yu and their salesmen Andy Wong and Marco Wong were easy to deal with and generally pretty efficient. Emails answered quickly enough, appointments kept, alterations discussed well. I let them take their time with this suit but they can probably turn it around faster. Their premises are at basement level and I wish I'd been able to see the cloth books in daylight.

 

[Notahappycustom]

Lords tailor Hong Kong are terrible. Bought 2 Zegna suits and they don't fit at all. Had 2 fittings and now have to take them for major alterations hopefully I can salvage this disaster and 2 suits that look like I bought them from a vintage store. They have used far to much heat when pressing the suits and have made the fabric bald/shinny looking like they are worn out before I start. Sleeves are at least 2 inches to long and 2 inches to wide.....terrible suits worst I've owned ever! You get what you pay for and these guys were not a good choice for sure....

 

[JezeC]

Any recommendations on tailors for a jacket in the $500 - $1000 USD range?

 

[Penfold]

That's quite a wide price range and the key determinant will be which fabric you go with, or whether you can source your own fabric and find someone to do a good CMT job. Most mid-range tailors would probably make up an odd jacket in a lesser-name-but-still-adequate cloth for within that kind of money. I've got a linen jacket coming from Practical Tailors soon - it's in a Holland & Sherry linen that took the price to just over that level but it might give you an idea on cut and workmanship there. Watch this space...

 

[Isolation]

Seems like lots of people are recommending Dream Bespoke for that price range. I don't have personal experience with them, but their garments seem good.

 

[add911_11]

I am working with them for an odd jacket.

I find they are decent tailors but you have to be good at spotting problems in fitting.

You have to know you stuff to step into Dream

 

[Yika]

Dropped by dream.b today for the first time get measured for a 3 piece. Letting ricky take the lead on styling details since this is my first commission with him.

 

[toomanytailors]

We've had a couple of suits and shirts made at Dream Bespoke too. Ricky is quite good to work with as he's friendly and works hard to ensure the clothes he makes fit you well. From our experience, Ricky was more thorough during the basted fitting than another tailor we had previously used. One point to note though is that DB's garments tend to run fairly slim so if that's not your thing, you might want to let him know earlier in the fitting process.

TMT

 

[Penfold]

Mix one trip to Sheung Wan to buy Thomas Mason shirting at T Adair & Sons (qv), one mission to Sham Sui Po to find nice buttons (MoP available but thin/poor quality, Trocas cheaper and more satisfying) and one patient shirtmaker (Graly) in Wan Chai. Oh, and $3500 HKD for all of that...
Before:

After:

$100 USD for bespoke shirts in Thomas Mason cotton and linen fabric [/smug]

 

[jtammanyhall]

Beautiful shirts, Penfold. Great price; can't wait to see some fit pics with the Graly CMT!

 

[borbor]

3. I will pay a *lot* more attention to researching cloth before I do this again. Fortunately I've found Merino Brothers in TST so that's a start.

Hope you have closet space, because you're on your way to getting unfunded liabilities soon

With regards to DB, ricky provides good service for a hong kong establishment. This is coming from an overseas customer who was only there for 2 fittings for a jacket, but i've had him make me two more suits (most recent one being a 520) w/o actually doing a fitting. The frontier needed to be tweaked locally, but Ricky took all my notes on adjustments and this fresco suit was GREAT.

@add911_11 i find that to be the case for most tailors. even with a fairly prominent bespoke house locally where i commissioned a few shirts and suit (and just dropped off my tweed), i have to tell em exactly what i'm unhappy with as well.

 

[add911_11]



Hope you have closet space, because you're on  your way to getting unfunded liabilities soon   

With regards to DB, ricky provides good service for a hong kong establishment.  This is coming from an overseas customer who was only there for 2 fittings for a jacket, but i've had him make me two more suits (most recent one being a 520) w/o actually doing a fitting.  The frontier needed to be tweaked locally, but Ricky took all my notes on adjustments and this fresco suit was GREAT.  

@add911_11
 i find that to be the case for most tailors.  even with a fairly prominent bespoke house locally where i commissioned a few shirts and suit (and just dropped off my tweed), i have to tell em exactly what i'm unhappy with as well.  

Haha... I do find less fitting problems when I go to my usual tailor.

Hope your stuff will turn out great.

 

[ebayhtl]



Any recommendations on tailors for a jacket in the $500 - $1000 USD range? 

You mentioned this earlier, and probably not a SF-approved answer - but for a navy blazer, why not go OTR? Seems like a lot of good OTR navy blazers out there for a reasonable price, only minor alterations needed.