Narin Couture tailor in Bangkok- only full-canvas suits outside HK?

[Matt S]

It looks impressive. The fit looks great from the front, and it's a nice style too.

 

[cincinnatus2]

People need to be very careful with Narin. His first 2 suits for me were fine. the last i got made was atrocious. He will often try to dissuade you from changes you want made during the fittings. For instance I thought the suit sleeves should be shortened but he convinced me it was because the shirt sleeves needed to be loosened instead. This did not even remotely turn out to be the case.

Anyway, i would have sent the suit back for 2-3 alterations but didn't have time. When i got home i looked at the suit more closely and was shocked to seeing the lapels were very uneven with each other...i was so pissed...really at myself too for not noticing. I really think he noticed a lot of these things but just didn't say anything.

Oh, even though he's made suits for me before with soft shoulders, higher armholes, he failed to really do that with this suit. I get the impression that he doesn't like making changes if he thinks he can get away with it. If you do go to him just be really forceful about what you want and don't necessarily listen to him especially if you're a regular of this forum and know what you want...i made that mistake.

 

[Maccimus]

Originally Posted by cincinnatus2

People need to be very careful with Narin. His first 2 suits for me were fine. the last i got made was atrocious. He will often try to dissuade you from changes you want made during the fittings. For instance I thought the suit sleeves should be shortened but he convinced me it was because the shirt sleeves needed to be loosened instead. This did not even remotely turn out to be the case.

Anyway, i would have sent the suit back for 2-3 alterations but didn't have time. When i got home i looked at the suit more closely and was shocked to seeing the lapels were very uneven with each other...i was so pissed...really at myself too for not noticing. I really think he noticed a lot of these things but just didn't say anything.

Oh, even though he's made suits for me before with soft shoulders, higher armholes, he failed to really do that with this suit. I get the impression that he doesn't like making changes if he thinks he can get away with it. If you do go to him just be really forceful about what you want and don't necessarily listen to him especially if you're a regular of this forum and know what you want...i made that mistake.
That's fairly common in East Asia. What they provide is between pure MTM and real bespoke.

 

[Svenn]

Originally Posted by Maccimus

That's fairly common in East Asia. What they provide is between pure MTM and real bespoke.

I 100% agree.

It sucks because it doesn't take that much extra effort for them to be real bespoke, but none of them do it... if just one Bangkok tailor actually wholeheartedly listened to client's requests, did high armholes or was flexible with shoulder types... hell even if all he did was fused suits, I'd go to him in a second and he'd probably get a deluge of clients.

 

[Maccimus]

It's the client base. Take your suit as an example. You post here, you got some negative feedbacks. You post in some lower level forum, people will say it's perfect. You can find bunch of sartorial experts in Europe but very few in East Asia. Therefore those tailors don't need to pursuit perfectness. Even they do, not too many people can tell.

 

[madjbs]

I recently had a suit made by Narin and I would say that I am about 85-90% happy with it. I think the main problems are due to the fabric rather than his tailoring as I chose one of his cheaper no name wools rather than one of the European brand name ones. The fabric could sit a little nicer just under the lapels and around the buttons, as it appears to be slightly wavy when not taught. I also had some shirts made which I am very happy with. Overall I am very pleased with the result and would certainly use him again.

 

[phelan77]

Originally Posted by Kirpan

The header is a great advertisement for Narin.
Unfortunately he is not a good tailor. He does know all the tricks in the book and uses them. I have worn tailored suits in Europe since I was 15 years old so I have some experience, also with Asian tailors. I was lucky in Singapore and in Pakistan and Malaysia.
For an average suit one can also be lucky in Thailand.
Narin's prices - only the prices - may give the less experienced the impression that the quality should be high.
I liked the last remarks by Acidboy.
Narin cannot take measurements well and that is what it is all about. He does not really stock interesting materials but you have to order them from the books. He does not stock single suit material. But he is awfully pretentious. And if you like to listen it's a great story teller.
Many tailors in Bangkok can match his work. And if you take time you will find more tailors who do full canvas (but that is not all you need).

Hi there. Am going to abngkok next month and was intending in tailoring some shirts and pants from Narin. After reading your thread, i'm now having 2nd thoughts. Any other tailor that you wish to recommend in bankok area? thanks in advance

 

[hugh51271]

I have had a couple of suits made here.
I was fairly happy.

I was firm with him and as I visit there every three months it took a couple of visits with modifications before the suits were what I required.
He had no issues taking time to modify anything and wasn't trying to push the sale.

I have found that in Thailand when you have the clothing, if you say nothing they won't do anything.

I am toying with the idea of taking my own fabric next time.

Never had shirts made here or pants.

He did have some Zegna fabric if I remember correctly.

I didn't find him pretentious.
All the tailoring is done in house.

Interesting Kirpin mentions 'other tailors' as alternatives but doesn't give names.
Most visiting Bangkok don't have time to experiment with looking around for Tailors (a lot of which are glorified fabric sellers) when there are hundreds of them in the city.
A head's up is what people and the previous poster want.

 

[gwolf]

any other recommended bkk tailors in his $300-ish price range. does he have VBC like hong kong tailors do?

the suit i may have copied is a 3 roll 2.5 canali with the request of having softer shoulders. everything else is good IMO.

btw i'm gonna be a local so i'm not looking for a tailor that churns out a suit in less than a week.

i might just spend most of my money on sam hober ties. he's located there right?

shirts though are pretty important. any recs? i just want probably 10 solid blues and 2 whites.

 

[ApplesHK]

I was happy with Narin and recommended him to a very difficult to fit and particular friend. He was very pleased with his suit in VBC 120s.
Narin, unlike most in Bangkok has his tailor shop out the back. His old tailor works in-store.

Would I choose Narin over Chan or Peter Lee in HK? No. Would I choose Narin over just about everybody else in Bangkok? Every time.

 

[Svenn]

Originally Posted by gwolf

any other recommended bkk tailors in his $300-ish price range. does he have VBC like hong kong tailors do?

the suit i may have copied is a 3 roll 2.5 canali with the request of having softer shoulders. everything else is good IMO.

btw i'm gonna be a local so i'm not looking for a tailor that churns out a suit in less than a week.

i might just spend most of my money on sam hober ties. he's located there right?

shirts though are pretty important. any recs? i just want probably 10 solid blues and 2 whites.

Enjoy your time in bkk! Getting Narin to copy a suit might be problematic- I had him copy a HK suit of mine and he failed at making the armholes as high as the original, the most critical part. The shoulders also weren't as soft (not even close). I also don't think Narin would appreciate being viewed as a mere 'copier'... he'll want to design a new suit for you. I want to copy some jackets too, so I would be interested if anyone knows of any other tailors in bkk that can do it reliably.

My plan was to go completely unstructured- just wool and lining (a shirt jacket). I think by doing that the tailors would have an easier time at copying it since there's no canvassing to worry about. They can even take apart your existing unstructured jacket, trace out copies of the pieces, and put together a new one.

After several months now, Narin's shirts are having several problems... I can't recommend anyone else but frankly I would have done better going with quality off-the-rack with alterations.

 

[gwolf]

thanks guys i guess it's narin or rtw for me in bkk.

svenn, was that the suit you posted a few pages back? i quite liked that one and would be very happy with similar results.

 

[phelan77]

Hi. Care to share the problems you are facing with Narin's shirts?

 

[Kirpan]

Originally Posted by phelan77

Hi there. Am going to abngkok next month and was intending in tailoring some shirts and pants from Narin. After reading your thread, i'm now having 2nd thoughts. Any other tailor that you wish to recommend in bankok area? thanks in advance

Sorry for the late reply but it may be months before I log on.
As you have read from others, Narin is not the good tailor he pretends to be.
He makes fused suits and is no good at measuring. So the header was wrong. My main point was that this tailor is in my opinion not better than most of his neighbours.
I'd hate to give names of other tailors because I cannot guarantee their work. Getting a good suit made takes a lot of time but the opposite is not true. Some tailors may give the impression that they need a lot of time just to make you think that because of that the suit must be good.

If a tailor is a bad planner or doesn't have staff he will also need a lot of time.
Many of the tailors near the first class hotels are not bad. After all they may have the experience of making clothes for people who can afford to pay. If you see a lot of ordinary tourists, sailors, GI's then there is less chance that the tailor is used to make quality suits.

 

[woody3691]

Spoke to Narin many times about suit construction. Something always made me hesitate. Depending upon the fabric, the full canvass will cost 10,000 baht premium otherwise he will fuse. After having had 6 suits made by 4 tailors all over Bangkok I had the best suit made by Tanika on Sukhumvit near Asoke BTS, close to Narin. Full canvass, hand sewn, great tailoring, exquisite workmanship, bone buttons, secret pants pockets with a very long list of everything I wanted on jacket and slacks, and perfect fit for 38,000 baht. What's the downside? They will only use their fabric. The suit took a long time, about 5 weeks with many. many fittings. (This is not a bad thing but if your time is limited, be warned.) They'll try to get you to purchase a 2nd pair of slacks for the suit, which to me is unnecessary unless you're a real slob. They are inflexible about price, so forget about bargaining.

Their selection of fabric is quite extensive and they have fabric in all price range. I pleaded with them to make a suit from Pal Zileri fabric I bought and they just refused. They will make a fused suit or an unstructured suit with no fusing using less expensive fabric at about 18,000 baht. They have assured me the fittings will be the same but they did show me the tailoring differences. The hand ticking around the lapels and pockets and flaps which was so incredibly meticulous on my 38,000 baht suit is different on the cheaper suit. It's more pronounced and although they assured me it is done by hand it's a completely different technique. When I asked if they would use the expensive ticking for a premium on the cheaper suit, they refused. Also they only use one fusing material and they said it was on the thick side, so if you want a lightweight jacket that moves like butter, you better check out the samples in the store.

Despite their inflexibility about the things I mentioned, they were very flexible as far as design and incorporating all of the elements in the jacket I wanted. Soft shoulders, no vents, tapered waist and they didn't mind at all revising the silhouette of the jacket as the fittings progressed. Also the slacks I requested were reversed pleats, cuffs, button fly and elastic waistband and secret pockets in the waist and bellow pockets on the slacks and they were only too happy to satisfy my whims. I would definitely have them make more suits for me in the future. While I don't fancy paying 38,000 baht and up for suits I realize that in the world of bespoke that's a drop in the bucket and it is in my range of affordability.

While my friends tell me I'm overpaying when the hundreds of tailors around me are charging 5-10,000 baht (some even less) for suits that are turned out in days, I realize the difference in quality and I appreciate the difference. I know that my suit will last a long time because I'm using a style which will be fairly timeless, at least for my lifetime. So If I get one suit made every other month for the next year, I'll have a lifetime of suits and they'll be recognized as special.