The Hong Kong Tailors Thread

[shirtingfantasy]

Sounds like the answer is that I should just bite the bullet and spend HKD $20k at WW Chan!

Two options:

1. Go WW Chan direct and take advantage of their current discount. I think it’s around 14-16k for the three popular ranges of Harrison’s fabric.

2. Try something like Tai Pan Row and Gordon Yao (if you have a more classic taste), and young tailors such as The Anthology, Prologue, Dream Bespoke and Il Negozio (if you want a contemporary flair; they charge a price similar to the old/ big names these days). I heard that Ying Tai has been subsumed under Ascot Chang - but as first time customer it may not be easy to convince them to send your suit to a specific experienced maker of their team.

 

[fllick]

Hi does anyone have suggestions for a good alterations tailor? Thank you!

 

[RectoVerso]

Ha ha I've been looking for a good one for a while now. All I got is cheap stuff, properly done for shirts, and unfortunately not for suits.

 

[shirtingfantasy]

 

[shirtingfantasy]

The most up-to-date coverage of the new wave of young tailoring operations (not tailors/ craftsmen in my view, as none of the owners actually cut or make):

The New Breed of Tailors and Craftsmen in Hong Kong

Whether it's a made-to-measure leather jacket or an unstructured sport jacket, these guys have the expertise and contemporary sensibility you're no doubt looking for.

www.prestigeonline.com

A few observations:
1. The circle is small. Many of the sartorially inclined in HK know a number of these owners personally.
2. They successfully escaped the "I know your Mirador BaoTou" fate. Some have their own workshop, some have close collaborations with geographically distant workshops (in various parts of Mainland China) and have specified enough modifications from those workshops' base level of work so cutting the shop (as advocated by @PekingRoadHK) is no longer easy.
3. They don't aim to become the "best value" in the common SF sense (aka economical in most cases when similar questions are raised on SF, "Who is the best value tailor in Hong Kong? I will stay for a week and plan to get two suits for USD 1000."), but they do offer a lot of value (e.g. good material, lots of handmade steps) for what they charge compared to Italian or British makers.

 

[dukenukem4ever]

Anyone in Hong Kong for the next week or so and want to get a suit made? I'm down to meet up and go fabric hunting and get suits made.

 

[rnstyip]

Hi, recently heard from a sifu in Mirador that Wong Sifu is no longer taking on new individual customers due to the workload.

Can anyone confirm? Thanks!

 

[shirtingfantasy]

Which Wong?

 

[Free Style]

Did anyone try the Dashing House? They seem relatively new on the HK scene. They are based in TST.

 

[rnstyip]

Which Wong?

Wong Man Hoi

Man Hoi Wong (@wongmanhoi1025) • Instagram photos and videos

626 Followers, 328 Following, 27 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Man Hoi Wong (@wongmanhoi1025)

www.instagram.com

 

[dukenukem4ever]

Haven't heard but I guess best thing to do is to just go to Wong Sifu yourself...

 

[sadkfjaskfaj]

Went to Allan Tom. Fabrics are very nice and prices are great (VBC Super 110s half canvassed for $3.4K).

The proprietor is nice and likes to chat about suits (he's knowledgable), but I wasn't satisfied with the service.

The experience is not great. Go if you have time to waste, but I don't like having my time wasted.

1. Showed up for a fitting on the date specified. Proprietor said "Oh, looks like the sifu forgot to send the suit back today. Let me check and call you back". Never called me back, I had to chase him up by phone. Had to get visibly annoyed before he even offered an apology. I was furious at this since he basically wasted my time (I got off work early just to make it to that fitting), and he broke his promise (he said he would call me back but he did not call me back). Also ********* up and should've apologized in the very first instance.

2. Got the pants made with side adjusters with buttons instead of a pulley system even though I expressly told him to make it with a pulley system. No apology was offered ("Oh, I must've forgotten to write it down"). I could've told him to re-make the pants but I told him to nicely just forget about it since he'd have to eat the cost of remaking the pants. Again, I'm annoyed that ********* up and didn't apologize.

3. Told him to do jetted pockets instead of flaps. Came back in the 2nd fitting with flap pockets. Told him to fix it. Came back in the 3rd fitting with flap pockets still. Remains to be seen whether he'll actually remember for the 4th fitting to do jetted pockets.

4. On 2nd fitting, jacket had some shoulder issues. Told him I need to get the tuxedo by a certain date, he said he'd get the shoulder issues fixed by the 3rd fitting so I could wear it. The shoulder issues were not fixed by the 3rd fitting (they did try and fix it but there was still a bit of a problem) and it's getting fixed by him again. This would be fine, I don't expect that complicated shoulder issues are fixed on the first try, except that...

4. Told him to prioritze my order and to try and get it to me in a few days (wanted to get it on the weekend so that I wouldn't have to get off work early to get the tuxedo), given that ********* up so many times (pockets, side tabs, not getting the jacket for a fitting on the date he said it'd be ready). He would have 2 working days to get the sifu to fix it. He said not possible, sorry, too many other orders in the queue. Dude, come on, if you **** up so many times, the least you could do is to prioritize my order.

Again, I have to reiterate that I don't hate the guy. He's a nice guy and he obviously likes suits. But it pisses me off that he gets things wrong and doesn't apologize for getting things wrong, and that he doesn't do stuff he says he'll do (he says he'll call you and doesn't call you). Also pisses me off that he doesn't know that if he ***** up, he should try and make it up to you (ie prioritzing your order).

I'm sticking with Lee Baron from now on.

 

[sadkfjaskfaj]

The most up-to-date coverage of the new wave of young tailoring operations (not tailors/ craftsmen in my view, as none of the owners actually cut or make):

The New Breed of Tailors and Craftsmen in Hong Kong

Whether it's a made-to-measure leather jacket or an unstructured sport jacket, these guys have the expertise and contemporary sensibility you're no doubt looking for.

www.prestigeonline.com

A few observations:
1. The circle is small. Many of the sartorially inclined in HK know a number of these owners personally.
2. They successfully escaped the "I know your Mirador BaoTou" fate. Some have their own workshop, some have close collaborations with geographically distant workshops (in various parts of Mainland China) and have specified enough modifications from those workshops' base level of work so cutting the shop (as advocated by @PekingRoadHK) is no longer easy.
3. They don't aim to become the "best value" in the common SF sense (aka economical in most cases when similar questions are raised on SF, "Who is the best value tailor in Hong Kong? I will stay for a week and plan to get two suits for USD 1000."), but they do offer a lot of value (e.g. good material, lots of handmade steps) for what they charge compared to Italian or British makers.

Very impressed by the marketing efforts of the new breed of HK tailors (Anthology, Refinery, Gaudery, etc). They've successfully harnessed social media/partenrships with important blogs (eg Permanent Style), and created a vibe of "cool" (whiskey bars etc), and managed to charge very expensive prices for a very young operation

(Prologue is basically MTM and charges $9k as a starting price???? Anthology starts from $10K???? That's almost WW Chan prices). Which is insane considering that they're like 3 years old.

 

[dukenukem4ever]

Went to Allan Tom. Fabrics are very nice and prices are great (VBC Super 110s half canvassed for $3.4K).

The proprietor is nice and likes to chat about suits (he's knowledgable), but I wasn't satisfied with the service.

The experience is not great. Go if you have time to waste, but I don't like having my time wasted.

1. Showed up for a fitting on the date specified. Proprietor said "Oh, looks like the sifu forgot to send the suit back today. Let me check and call you back". Never called me back, I had to chase him up by phone. Had to get visibly annoyed before he even offered an apology. I was furious at this since he basically wasted my time (I got off work early just to make it to that fitting), and he broke his promise (he said he would call me back but he did not call me back). Also ********* up and should've apologized in the very first instance.

2. Got the pants made with side adjusters with buttons instead of a pulley system even though I expressly told him to make it with a pulley system. No apology was offered ("Oh, I must've forgotten to write it down"). I could've told him to re-make the pants but I told him to nicely just forget about it since he'd have to eat the cost of remaking the pants. Again, I'm annoyed that ********* up and didn't apologize.

3. Told him to do jetted pockets instead of flaps. Came back in the 2nd fitting with flap pockets. Told him to fix it. Came back in the 3rd fitting with flap pockets still. Remains to be seen whether he'll actually remember for the 4th fitting to do jetted pockets.

4. On 2nd fitting, jacket had some shoulder issues. Told him I need to get the tuxedo by a certain date, he said he'd get the shoulder issues fixed by the 3rd fitting so I could wear it. The shoulder issues were not fixed by the 3rd fitting (they did try and fix it but there was still a bit of a problem) and it's getting fixed by him again. This would be fine, I don't expect that complicated shoulder issues are fixed on the first try, except that...

4. Told him to prioritze my order and to try and get it to me in a few days (wanted to get it on the weekend so that I wouldn't have to get off work early to get the tuxedo), given that ********* up so many times (pockets, side tabs, not getting the jacket for a fitting on the date he said it'd be ready). He would have 2 working days to get the sifu to fix it. He said not possible, sorry, too many other orders in the queue. Dude, come on, if you **** up so many times, the least you could do is to prioritize my order.

Again, I have to reiterate that I don't hate the guy. He's a nice guy and he obviously likes suits. But it pisses me off that he gets things wrong and doesn't apologize for getting things wrong, and that he doesn't do stuff he says he'll do (he says he'll call you and doesn't call you). Also pisses me off that he doesn't know that if he ***** up, he should try and make it up to you (ie prioritzing your order).

I'm sticking with Lee Baron from now on.

Dang sorry to hear that you had such a terrible experience there. I kind of feel like most tailors who have no long-term vision won't "offer" to fix something that is their fault because, well it's cost to them and their goal is simply to pay rent and put food on their tables. It's short-term thinking for themselves.

Anyway I've had a bunch of these experiences where tailor shops (salesmen... don't even want to call them tailors but I've had tailors tell me to my face before that nothing is wrong with my suit or something can't be fixed... only for me to bring to an alterations specialist to get it fixed...) Honestly I'm not the one to stir **** up in people's shops (must be that Japanese environment I've been in too long) but man with what you went through I would have thrown a **** fit inside.

 

[Memo]

For whoever interested, here is the latest CMT price of the shirtmaker in Hong Kong.

Since a few years ago, they implemented the system of progressive CMT price for luxury cotton fabric. This seems to be the inevitable outcome of more and more people doing CMT when the availability of cut-length fabric is no longer exclusive to tailors.

Perhaps the price structure of HK tailor businesses will change towards the Italian system - with the costs of operating a storefront and a team of skilled staff absorbed into the base price of CMT, and a more modest mark-up on luxury fabric (when a walk-in client just orders a shirt or suit from them). In that scenario, a client choosing to go CMT with a more expensive maker would be going for the service package, not the perceived saving.

Hopefully, tailors and the entrepreneurs keeping the tradition alive shall get the recognition they deserve.

View attachment 1188469

Is it possible to disclose the name of the tailor? I am very interested!