The Hong Kong BaoTou Tailors and Fabric Shops for CMT Thread

[Warrant_Buffet]

'go baotou' 'spend wisely'
Good thing majority of the world doesn't think so.
But yes I do agree to each his own. Most importantly it's for us to be satisfied, nothing wrong with that so I don't disagree with you saying cut doesn't matter. I just take issue when you cherry pick your cases and try to fool people into superior baotou bullshit.

I kinda feel like poking a bees nest hahahahaha

WhatifItoldyouIamgettingafullcanvassjacketcmtATATAILORSHOPfor2khkdonly
Dontexpectservicebutpplgetbeterservicefrombaptou
Sifusuitslookbetterbutwhenthingsareofftheydontmatter
Yadayadayada

 

[Warrant_Buffet]

'go baotou' 'spend wisely'
Good thing majority of the world doesn't think so.
But yes I do agree to each his own. Most importantly it's for us to be satisfied, nothing wrong with that so I don't disagree with you saying cut doesn't matter. I just take issue when you cherry pick your cases and try to fool people into superior baotou bullshit.

I kinda feel like poking a bees nest hahahahaha

Lion's teeth. That's what you're poking.

 

[Haagendazs]

Lion's teeth. That's what you're poking.

ROARRRRRRRRR

I do use the shirt maker in mirador regularly but does he count when hes not making suits? (everyone knows who he is right...)
Wong SY sifu is a lovely chap and I would love to support him more, but I need to spend my hard earned cash wisely... A different kind of wisdom compared to our beloved pekingroad but still

At the end of the day its what kind of balance you're looking for. Some ppl care about material and price only, then baotou is for them. Need a reasonable balance between material price and cut? Mid level baotou shop, need all of the above? Pay top dollar for top tailors, it's pretty simple.

I never had a problem with this, it's just trying to portrait baotou users are superior in knowledge or whatever **** that bothers me a lot. For someone seasoned in this hobby sure, I don't see a problem, but newcomers need to stay at a reasonable distance from baotous imo

 

[PekingRoadHK]

This post is about leather jacket. Time is changing. When going for meetings, leather jacket might be an option when we feel relaxing. It's nice to see business leaders with leather jackets in meetings:

Christine Lagarde leather jacket:

Jeff Bezos leather jacket

There are baotou for different garments in Mirador. Leather jacket is another example. I have a suede safari leather made by a baotou in Fanling. He had a workshop in Mirador before. His price for CMT is HK$1k as he works at home. I did the sourcing for leather and materials for HK$1.6k. Total for the jacket (CMT workmanship HK$1k + leather materials HK$1.6k) is HK$2.6k. It's amazing to get tailor made garments of good quaility for low price. #1,092 showed the amazing jacket (HK$1k CMT price):

I will have more leather jackets. considering to make one more suede like this:

------------------------

#1,801 explained baotou background and character. They are not working like tailor shops. This is a kind of "made in HK" or "made by HK in mainland China". This is not charity! They make good quaility products for low price, this is how they survive. Good for baotou!

 

[Free Style]

The reality is good baotou are loaded of business.

Not just suit baotou, there are tailors of different garments taking orders in Mirador! They survive for over 5 decades. They are a part of global supply chain. This is not fooling people, this is real!
#1,801
Up to now, Mirador mansion is still playing a role in the globalization economy. I found baotou tailors in this building are still doing export business, e.g.
1) shirts and uniforms for airlines, casinos, chain store of corporations, etc.
2) clothing for TV and movie for US Hollywood, India Bollywood, HK and mainland China, etc.
3) clothing for beauty pageants, etc.
4) product samples of international fashion brand names before large scale manufacturing, etc.
5) tailor made garments for Royal families in Asian countries, etc.
6) consumers with special needs who prefer to deal with tailors directly, etc.
Some end users don’t come HK for fitting, they got their clothing manager with all measurement data to make the orders. Baotou tailors produce the garments according to the measurement data.

If they are so loaded with business, why do they even spend time with a few private customers where they are not going to make much money. Is that charity?

Maybe you should rephrase and say some baotou is loaded with business. I don't think they all are.

Also, do you think airlines, casinos, etc care about quality of those uniforms? All they care is how cheap they can get those - that's it - given they need to make a profit and they want to keep costs as low as possible.

 

[Free Style]

This post is about leather jacket. Time is changing. When going for meeting, leather jacket might be an option when we feel relaxing. It's nice to see business leaders with leather jackets in meetings:

Christine Lagarde leather jacket:

Jeff Bezos leather jacket

There are baotou of different garments in Mirador. Leather jacket is another example. I have a suede safari leather made by a baotou in Fanling. He had a workshop in Mirador before. His price for CMT is HK$1k as he works at home. I did the sourcing for leather and materials for HK$1.6k. Total is HK$2.6k. It's amazing to get tailor made garments of good quaility for low price. I will have more leather jackets.

considering to make one like this:
View attachment 1877391

1000 hkd for a jacket made in Hong Kong by an old master? That's a joke

 

[Warrant_Buffet]

1000 hkd for a jacket made in Hong Kong by an old master? That's a joke

I hope this opens up a discussion on what makes a leather jacket good.

🍿🍿🍿

 

[skh821]

A very honest conclusion, I should admit. You get what you pay for. At least the Dor was a good starting ground.

What's your experience wth Ng? And by 8k HKD it can't be for the craftsmanship alone?

No experience with Ng. I know there is a lengthy discussion on him. But for me just did not try to make a suit with him for no special reason.

I only tried 4-5 Sifus and most of the time I stick with purchasing from one of them.

Also, if dream bespoke CMT is HKD5,000 I guess it is worth a try. HKD8,000 for a suit is all inclusive, with Loro Piana 170s. I guess I have overestimated. Probably did not exceed HKD7,000. I have stocked up quite a lot fabric at home. Maybe I will give a try to dream bespoke then. Price similar to SY.

 

[PekingRoadHK]

This post is about shirt. There are baotou tailors of many kinds of garment in Mirador, shirt baotou is a kind. I have tried many sifu, and my list is 3 shirt baotou in Mirador:

1) Wong MH sifu is a famous shirt baotou tailor in Mirador. All shirts are "made in HK" in his Mirador workshop. When people say baotou in Mirador are no good or don't go baotou, but they go this baotou in Mirador. Photo from sifu IG, this shirt is not mine. I also got Tessitura Monti from Lung Wah:

2) Another sifu who runs his own Shenzhen shirt factory. He said he has not enough Shenzhen labour. He does not want to be famous to take too many retail orders. He does not want FB or IG. His price is less than HK$200/shirt and is in the top ranking in the under HK$200 price level. He always takes orders from bespoke tailor shops. Paper patterns are kept in Shenzhen.

I always buy nice cotton to go to this shirt baotou:

3) An ordinary shirt baotou who has been taking lots of order from ordinary tailor shops. He is always too full, he does not want to be famous. He does not want FB or IG. Workmanship is just the same ordinary as others charging HK$130/shirt. He is also charging HK$130/shirt. It means nothing special, I don't see any difference of his products with other sifu charging the same price level. What makes him different to me is I can choose "made in Shenzhen" or "made in HK" from this baotou, same price. Paper patterns are kept in HK. He has his small team in HK making shirts in Mirador, I can see his team making shirts for me in Mirador. I see same workmanship of "made in HK" and "made in Shenzhen", nothing good or bad. What is special about this one? It's the uncertain logistics time between hk and Shenzhen, especially during this COVID-19 period. I am not going to worry about the logistics things for "made in HK" in this Mirador workshop. I always buy Egyptian cotton to go to this baotou. Cheap Egyptian cotton and cheap China cotton are about the same price and quaility, ie. very ordinary cotton.

----------------

I tried 2 bad shirt baotou before, I think they are too hea and poor cutting. I can see the background reason is they don't want to take retail orders. Cam sifu and Wing sifu.

There are good and bad baotou, different quality and different price. What is good or bad, we have different definitions. We pick whatever we prefer. This is our choice.

 

[Warrant_Buffet]

No experience with Ng. I know there is a lengthy discussion on him. But for me just did not try to make a suit with him for no special reason.

I only tried 4-5 Sifus and most of the time I stick with purchasing from one of them.

Also, if dream bespoke CMT is HKD5,000 I guess it is worth a try. HKD8,000 for a suit is all inclusive, with Loro Piana 170s. I guess I have overestimated. Probably did not exceed HKD7,000. I have stocked up quite a lot fabric at home. Maybe I will give a try to dream bespoke then. Price similar to SY.

Just being nosy -- which one did you stick with, and is there a reason behind it?

---

DB / Jantzen / Tai Pan / Thumb Thimble are decent. Jantzen in particular has an interesting crew who can make shirts with handsewn buttonholes. I had a zip jacket made by them -- 800hkd 3 fittings and I was served by super-friendly staff

No exp with DB Tai Pan and TT but they are pretty reputable. Tai Pan keeps paper patterns for their clients IIRC while TT pays A LOT of attention to the trimmings and buttons they use on their garments AFAIK.

For a contemporary flare, give Prologue / Anthology a try. Armoury too if you have a pretty penny to spare.

Screw Collxr though.

 

[Warrant_Buffet]

Couple more things:
- Obviously you don't get odd lengths at good rates
- Some fabrics might only be available at tailor shops as some merchants don't take small orders
- The fibers of vintage fabrics can be weak
- With "masters" retiring, maybe it's time to think about where else to have good garments made

 

[skh821]

Yes, a lot of people from around the world are enjoying to go baotou. Many baotou and fabric shops are happy to serve wise consumers. Baotou are tailors behind tailor shops, and we don't need to go tailor shops for the services we don't need. One more thing to look at, the products we receive from baotou are not dry cleaned. The products we receive from top grade bespoke tailor shops are dry cleaned. Baotou don't have that kind of high temperature ironer in their workshops. A baotou explained 2 reasons for dry cleaning by top bespoke tailor shops: 1) kill gems, 2) lining and angles are more outstanding after high temperature ironing.

You have explained a market of working professionals. People are accountants, auditors, bankers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, management of corporations, from junior level to director level. We are wearing suits for ordinary daily work life, we expect nothing too fancy. I don't feel Neapolitan shoulders has a point for ordinary daily work life, I feel comfort with ordinary shoulders. We don't need those fancy things, those extra things will turn things bad.

You want your suit looking better in photos, you can pick British fabrics instead of Italian fabrics. Mohair has the same character of Fresco, and is good for summer suits, I suggest you to try Mohair from British brands next time.

We choose to go baotou, we know how to spend wisely. Tailor shops are making more money on higher grade fabrics, that means we save more to pick higher grades fabrics when we go baotou. We can shop for old stocks in local shops or online shops. Of course, we go to shops with reputation only. These are examples:

1) Holland and Sherry old stock, this fabric costs me about HK$200/yard. Ng sifu is now working on the final finishing, I'm expecting to pick up before the holiday:
View attachment 1877345

2) Dugdale bros, original price is about HK$1k/yard. This old stock costs me about HK$200/yard. This one is for after the holiday:
View attachment 1877360

I have checked with sifu to see the above fabrics are real things.

Baotou customers understand very well why we go baotou. We have made the right choice.

Thanks. Will try Mohair as you suggested. I guess most fabrics are real if you are purchasing from suppliers with a long history in HK or UK. They would not risk their own reputation. It is true the fabric price helps a lot on saving. I can easily purchase quality fabric at a price of HKD500 per meter. I guess tailor shop would ask for more than 10K for a suit made with Scabal 140s Londoner? I am paying HKD4K in total now. Most of the blue fabric of the collection looks fabulous, especially under sunlight.

I got bad experience with tailor shop service as well. I did purchase some from tailor shop. Some of my friends also got unsatisfactory stuff from tailor shop in Central. So I guess it is not about either baotou or tailors. There are both bad tailors and baotous, and also "good" tailors and baotous. "Good" in terms of providing what you need with what you pay. I expect to break my wallet to make some suits at WWChan someday, just not now.

One thing about overseas fabric purchase, it does come with the risk of fabric being not the same as you "expect". You cannot touch, examine and feel it before buying.

 

[dukenukem4ever]

I got my suits from NG and Hung Sifus.
I had great experience with NG. Hung is much more of a salesman but we connected better because we both like to ‘blow water.’
My Baotou experience was from 2019 I believe iirc. Quality delivered was top notch in my eyes. No I don’t need a 20,000 USD Logsdail suit. At the time my workplace in Tokyo was very conservative leaning in terms of suits. Just a sea of black and navy with the occasional pinstripes. I would definitely go back to Baotous if and when I get a chance to visit HKG again.

 

[skh821]

Just being nosy -- which one did you stick with, and is there a reason behind it?

---

DB / Jantzen / Tai Pan / Thumb Thimble are decent. Jantzen in particular has an interesting crew who can make shirts with handsewn buttonholes. I had a zip jacket made by them -- 800hkd 3 fittings and I was served by super-friendly staff

No exp with DB Tai Pan and TT but they are pretty reputable. Tai Pan keeps paper patterns for their clients IIRC while TT pays A LOT of attention to the trimmings and buttons they use on their garments AFAIK.

For a contemporary flare, give Prologue / Anthology a try. Armoury too if you have a pretty penny to spare.

Screw Collxr though.

The sole reason for the one i use quite often: cheap. offer me great discount on house fabric suit. haha.

And thank you for your recommendation. Some of these tailor shop, i am their IG follower.

 

[PekingRoadHK]

I got my suits from NG and Hung Sifus.
I had great experience with NG. Hung is much more of a salesman but we connected better because we both like to ‘blow water.’
My Baotou experience was from 2019 I believe iirc. Quality delivered was top notch in my eyes. No I don’t need a 20,000 USD Logsdail suit. At the time my workplace in Tokyo was very conservative leaning in terms of suits. Just a sea of black and navy with the occasional pinstripes. I would definitely go back to Baotous if and when I get a chance to visit HKG again.

Hung is a good one for entry level. He has got many fabric catalog books of different brands for viewing, you can take your time to hand feel the fabrics. You need to understand the character of the fabrics to pick the right fabric. Once you got sufficult experiences, you go someplaces else.

HK is the same, a sea of black and navy. I don't feel suits in indoor, I feel they are like black clothes. I prefer light to mid grey and blue, they are more outstanding, more sunshine.

For tailor shops, they need to take more profit to cover their retail rental cost. They take profit on fabrics and workmanship. Especially in the area of high rental districts, they have to take higher profit margin. They are counting the number of suit per day, and the time they can spend per customer/suit. This is a retail business.