The Hong Kong Tailors Thread

[Fishball]

Here is the new quote:

Originally Posted by RogerC

To add to that: sports coat from Gordon Yao is 5200 CMT

 

[Fishball]

Here is the new quote:

Originally Posted by afterglow
Gordon Yao wants HKD7,500 for the suit, HKD 2,200 for a vest.

 

[JTA]

Thank you for the information, much appreciate that.

 

[mrclam]

thanks fishball, guess its going to be y william yu for me.

 

[dragon8]

Originally Posted by mrclam

thanks fishball, guess its going to be y william yu for me.

Did prices remain the same over there?

 

[mrclam]

Originally Posted by dragon8

Did prices remain the same over there?
close enough, 5k. i didn't expect yao to go up so dramatically.

 

[dragon8]

Originally Posted by mrclam

close enough, 5k. i didn't expect yao to go up so dramatically.

I agree. Yao went up astronomically. I guess he wants to discourage CMT

 

[RogerC]

Although, could someone enlighten me as to why you would want to discourage CMT?

Look at the numbers: let's say my cost as a tailor to change a length of cloth into a coat is 1000, and I use cloth worth 500. Markup on both, 50% Total cost: 1500, profit:750, customer pays 2250. Now let's say customer brings own cloth. I lose the 50% markup on the cloth, so I raise my markup for the tailoring: rather than 1500, I charge 1750. No profit difference to me, if customer wants to pay the retail prices for fabric, that's his own problem.

Of course, I can imagine there are some problems related to things going wrong. That's why the tailors I frequented, at least, explicitly warned me that if anything goes wrong, it's my liability and not theirs. I can also imagine tailors not wanting to work with substandard cloth, but when something comes from Minnis, London Lounge, Harrisons, or whatever, that is not quite the case.

So am I missing something here?

 

[mrclam]

Originally Posted by RogerC

Although, could someone enlighten me as to why you would want to discourage CMT?

Look at the numbers: let's say my cost as a tailor to change a length of cloth into a coat is 1000, and I use cloth worth 500. Markup on both, 50% Total cost: 1500, profit:750, customer pays 2250. Now let's say customer brings own cloth. I lose the 50% markup on the cloth, so I raise my markup for the tailoring: rather than 1500, I charge 1750. No profit difference to me, if customer wants to pay the retail prices for fabric, that's his own problem.

Of course, I can imagine there are some problems related to things going wrong. That's why the tailors I frequented, at least, explicitly warned me that if anything goes wrong, it's my liability and not theirs. I can also imagine tailors not wanting to work with substandard cloth, but when something comes from Minnis, London Lounge, Harrisons, or whatever, that is not quite the case.

So am I missing something here?

In yaos case, he used to charge 700 usd for cmt, and 1100 for entry level cloth. He was obviously making a ton of money on that entry level cloth, so his increase may be bringing things in line with what you mentioned above. Another possibility is that he may get better prices for fabric if he orders larger quantities.

 

[JTA]

I prefer not to comment on the price subject as different businesses have different pricing strategies and cost structure.
If I find the price is unreasonable for the budget then I will just move on to find a better alternative however if I don't mind paying the price then I will stick. Simple as that.

 

[mrclam]

Originally Posted by JTA

I prefer not to comment on the price subject as different businesses have different pricing strategies and cost structure.
If I find the price is unreasonable for the budget then I will just move on to find a better alternative however if I don't mind paying the price then I will stick. Simple as that.

Agreed, we can theorize about why this or that happened, but at the end of the day, we have to vote with our wallets.

 

[RogerC]

^ Yes, but I would also like to calculate what would give me the better deal, especially as I have to time my fabric purchases and bespoke commissions in line with visits to Hong Kong. Hence, I'd like to know in time if it is (a) possible (b) a good idea to purchase a certain fabric and go CMT, or have the tailor obtain the fabric.

And for non-commercially available fabrics (such as the London Lounge) or "out of print" fabrics, CMT is the only option. This is the one reason I do not understand WW Chan's decision to not do CMT full stop.

 

[dragon8]

Originally Posted by RogerC

^ Yes, but I would also like to calculate what would give me the better deal, especially as I have to time my fabric purchases and bespoke commissions in line with visits to Hong Kong. Hence, I'd like to know in time if it is (a) possible (b) a good idea to purchase a certain fabric and go CMT, or have the tailor obtain the fabric.

And for non-commercially available fabrics (such as the London Lounge) or "out of print" fabrics, CMT is the only option. This is the one reason I do not understand WW Chan's decision to not do CMT full stop.

WW Chan stopped doing CMT for the exact reasons you stated above regarding sub-standard cloth.

 

[stylomilo]

Reasons for refusing CMT , apart from the sub standard cloth is also the need to re-cut when issues arise during the fittings. In certain cases where matching patterns are required, the customer may not provide sufficient fabric.

Be that as it may I wonder if any member have any experiences with regards to CMT for shirts with the tailors mentioned in this thread? If the answer is in the affirmative , what costs have they quoted for this service?

 

[Fishball]

Originally Posted by stylomilo

Reasons for refusing CMT , apart from the sub standard cloth is also the need to re-cut when issues arise during the fittings. In certain cases where matching patterns are required, the customer may not provide sufficient fabric.

Be that as it may I wonder if any member have any experiences with regards to CMT for shirts with the tailors mentioned in this thread? If the answer is in the affirmative , what costs have they quoted for this service?

CMT for shirts at Ascot Chang is HK$750(700 last month). The high end CMT price is going up and up, they used to be 450 at around 2003.
Peter Lee was 200+, depend on what you want.