WW Chan Shanghai Suit Results

[Maccimus]



RIght, as emptym says, the Hong Kong and Shanghai are completely different shops; I wish I had known that beforehand.

I've spoken to Patrick on tour before, and he does indeed seem very knowledgeable; I think he would have done a much better job than the fitter in Shanghai. Since they're effectively two separate business though, Hong Kong can't alter anything for me.

Sorry about the delay in posting pictures - I haven't had the opportunity to snap any. I'll get some up as soon as I can.

Good luck with Chan in Hong Kong, and please keep us updated! 

Could you share with us the result of the latest alteration?
I don't see any fatal problems in the original pictures--I mean some normal alterations will give you a much cleaner look. Curious to know why they refused at the first place.

 

[davdh]

Higher quality pictures can be found on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5xoodiw4g4qwjcm/zklt_Rdx5_/Chan2

At this point, I'm mainly concerned with the rippling on the back of the suit and occasional extreme rippling on the back of the pants. Any suggestions for alterations would be appreciated. Does anybody know a good alterations tailor in the San Francisco Bay area?



The back is still rippling. I'm most concerned about the left shoulder and lower back. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Is there excess fabric at the shoulders? Why is the lower back rippling?



The back of the pants when I push my buttocks out. It doesn't look great, but I'm thinking it might be because my fabric is too light (9 ounces). Thoughts?


I'm not sure what's going on with my pants or with the backs of my sleeves. Is there just too much fabric on the pants? Why are they rippling like so?

Overexposed front. I think this is reasonable.

Less exposed front shot.

These pants are looking fairly chunky. What's wrong here?


I'm happy with the sleeve pitches.







The pants sometimes look substantially better once long as I pump my buttocks out. That's certainly unsustainable though. How should I get them altered?

Thanks!

 

[bluesman528]



The pants sometimes look substantially better once long as I pump my buttocks out. That's certainly unsustainable though. How should I get them altered?

You already analyzed that by yourself, you need less fabric under the buttocks. After that the pants will fall cleaner in the back. You need a good alteration tailor.

This is something that should not happen when one is using bespoke or MTM services.

 

[chobochobo]

The jacket looks better, but the pants are still pretty bad for WW Chan (albeit Shanghai). I'm quite thankful that my Peter Lee pants turned out very nicely

 

[Victor Elfo]

The sleeve pitch is still off, but less so. The wrinkling on your lower back is caused by a long back balance, but it's better than before. About the trousers, again, long back balance, pushing your buttocks up is like filling the trouser, that's why it gets better that way.

 

[Svenn]

The best thing to do at this point is to take those pictures to alterationists with red circles around the ripples and ask them specifically 'can you smooth these out.' I'd guess 90% of them will say 'it looks fine' or some other excuse concealing the fact they don't know how to fix it. Skip those alterationists until you find one that says they can.

The key when you're a bespeaker is to be ultra-specific and not back down from your requests. Don't ask questions, don't point flaws out, TELL them to fix it. Yes it might make some of us asses, but the tailors can't demand every client be a rich passive idiot that lets them do whatever they want. The downfall of many SR houses, I would say, is due precisely to the fact that they pushed away all but the most acquiescent loaded geezers, and the tailoring just got sloppier and sloppier.

 

[Svenn]

Thought I'd post this here since it seems to be a 'Chan gone wrong thread':

I recently had a suit made at WW Chan's Hong Kong shop, 4 fittings over the course of a week and a half. I'm really on the fence on this one; while the overall fit was decent and the craftsmanship quite good, there is a lot that's irritating me.

The back isn't as clean as it could be, the lapel points aren't even (one sticks up half an inch higher than the other, a major problem), and they didn't compensate for my low shoulder resulting in a bump on the shoulder silhouette. Really not forgivable since I was in their shop. Honestly the customer service at that place is pretty terrible. I know a lot of you guys are friends with Patrick or whatever, but everyone else just deals with those young guys in front and they can be real jackasses. I showed them another bespoke jacket of mine with a collar feature I wanted them to copy, they flat out said no. I had to basically demand that Patrick come out and look at it, which was very unpleasant. I otherwise completely deferred to them, which is why I was appalled when my one special request was such an apparent hassle. What do they think bespoke is? Choose your lining and pocket styles and then get the **** out?

A seemingly reasonable, older British guy on his way to the airport came in while I was there expecting to pick up his finished suit, one of the young guys said 'sorry we don't have' and just stared at him vacantly. No apologies. I felt rushed, and the fittings were very brief with very little input from the staff.

The one thing I do admire is the speed; which is why I may still do a second suit despite the flaws, and is the reason I won't post pics on here lest someone from Chan is reading. Will I get better results the second time around? Maybe. But the pedestal Chan has been put on through the internet and the HK crowd, as if they're some grand old tailoring house, really isn't deserved. They're a high quality MTM speed factory. They cut a clean, decent suit on a set house style, but now that Patrick seems to be in the background more, I think for $2000+ you're better off staying domestic or going European.

 

[emptym]

That's too bad. I've only had minor errors on just a couple of the ten or so suits / sport coats they've made for me.

And I've never had any requests turned down. The only time they gave me any resistance was when I asked for a little belly on the lapels of a single-breasted jacket.

Fwiw, I've always worked with Patrick and Arnold and have always enjoyed it. And, as in anything, it may depend on various other factors, such as how one makes a request.

 

[Svenn]

^I'm glad they worked well for you; to be clear though, I asked as politely as anyone could... I let the guy go through the whole process on our first meeting, all I did was nod or point. I wasn't one of those blabbering clients. At the very end, after I let him choose the lining, he said, 'ok any special requests?', whereupon I simply showed him the collar from my other jacket. It was only after Patrick came over that I got an explanation why they couldn't do it, which to this day I don't believe since I've had at least 2 other bespoke tailors do it (it's basically a high Neapolitan gorge). Be that as it may, it's the fitting flaws that really disappointed me... they should have noticed them. I had to request to use their special mirror room to see the back of my jacket.

 

[TheTukker]



....

Fwiw, I've always worked with Patrick and Arnold and have always enjoyed it. ....

+2

That's really too bad Sven. I wouldn't be surprised if your expectations were probably (over-)stretched, as Chan gets (too?) much praise here. Also, from reading your posts here, your expectations and fine eye, especially in certain areas, (far) exceed what the average (senior) crowd here is looking for. That is no critique and certainly fine; merely observations.

That said, a clean back is the minimum you may expect from Chan. But did you not notice the not-so-clean back and lapel points? Would have thought you could have pointed those out (although they should of course pick up on that themselves).

I haven't used them in a while, but will certainly go back, as my pattern's down and I like working with Patrick. Not sure if I were to use them again if the major benefit I see in them is merely speed. Why are you calling them MTM though?

 

[Svenn]

^The lapel unevenness seemed to arise after the finishing, as did the vertical ripples next to the armscye. Mind you it's not a terrible back, but it's not a vox or jeffery d back.

Of course they're not MTM, I was being a bit flippant, but when a client doesn't feel comfortable making requests and fit really isn't analyzed by the tailor, it's easy to feel like you're not getting bespoke. Again though, the suit isn't a piece of crap; I like it more than my Yao and Steed, and it gets compliments all the time. If Chan can make me more of a pagoda shoulder, fix the lapels, and firm up the back, it would be pretty nice pattern to get suits from.

You're right I used to be insanely picky, especially about arm mobility, but lately I've been deferring to tailors and going with conservative cuts. I have my own solution to arm mobility now which I may share with you all at some point

 

[taxgenius]



^The lapel unevenness seemed to arise after the finishing, as did the vertical ripples next to the armscye. Mind you it's not a terrible back, but it's not a vox or jeffery d back.

Of course they're not MTM, I was being a bit flippant, but when a client doesn't feel comfortable making requests and fit really isn't analyzed by the tailor, it's easy to feel like you're not getting bespoke. Again though, the suit isn't a piece of crap; I like it more than my Yao and Steed, and it gets compliments all the time. If Chan can make me more of a pagoda shoulder, fix the lapels, and firm up the back, it would be pretty nice pattern to get suits from.

You're right I used to be insanely picky, especially about arm mobility, but lately I've been deferring to tailors and going with conservative cuts. I have my own solution to arm mobility now which I may share with you all at some point

Was your steed bespoke or MTM?

 

[TheTukker]

Understood Svenn - that is very helpful. Not sure whether you have the opportunity to go back, but I would be surprised if they could not address those issues if made that request.

Needless to say, after your long arm mobility quest, would be very interested to learn about the solution that you have found. That of course would merit its own thread.

 

[Svenn]

It's a provisional solution for now, that may or may not involve some slightly visible spandex No one in court has noticed yet, but if you don't mind a bit of a shooting jacket appearance, you can pm me.

Was your steed bespoke or MTM?

Bespoke; fittings in London.

 

[TheTukker]

Pm sent.