Hong Kong Tailor Report from A Suitable Wardrobe

Chan has Crispaire, and their pricing is transparent with sticker prices in every book they carry.

I was Chan's customer for a while. Several things made me drop them:

- Inflexible style: They can only deviate a little from their house style.
- End of CMT service.
- Prices: Seems to be ever esacalating when the rest of HK remains unchanged.

I have come to the conclusion that Chan are pricing themselves out of the HK market in general, in favour of US travel order which is substantial and easier money to earn. Chan go to the US, pick up a few hundred orders per trip, come back to HK, cut them, farm them out to local tailors, and finally ship it out to the US largely without any fitting. Yao does the same thing. As Fishball mentioned, Yao's operation in HK is practically shut down when he travels to the US. When he is in HK, his tailors are swamped with US orders to complete. If you want to get a good suit from Chan or Yao while in HK, or any of the HK tailors that travel to the US, be sure you have time to wait. They can give you a quick fix, but the tailor that they use is usually from the B team.

I used A-Man for a suit last year. Good quality and the styling and fit was reasonable, if a bit unremarkable.

You have to take charge of the process with a lot of the HK tailors, otherwise they revert to their comfort silos and produce a BB type of garment.

What is CMT service?

Originally Posted by Viktri

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What is CMT service?

You supply your own fabric to the tailor, and he charges you only for the tailoring service and not the fabric. Stands for Cut-Make-Trim.

Originally Posted by kolecho

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Chan has Crispaire, and their pricing is transparent with sticker prices in every book they carry.

I was Chan's customer for a while. Several things made me drop them:

- Inflexible style: They can only deviate a little from their house style.
- End of CMT service.
- Prices: Seems to be ever esacalating when the rest of HK remains unchanged.

I have come to the conclusion that Chan are pricing themselves out of the HK market in general, in favour of US travel order which is substantial and easier money to earn. Chan go to the US, pick up a few hundred orders per trip, come back to HK, cut them, farm them out to local tailors, and finally ship it out to the US largely without any fitting. Yao does the same thing. As Fishball mentioned, Yao's operation in HK is practically shut down when he travels to the US. When he is in HK, his tailors are swamped with US orders to complete. If you want to get a good suit from Chan or Yao while in HK, or any of the HK tailors that travel to the US, be sure you have time to wait. They can give you a quick fix, but the tailor that they use is usually from the B team.


So who's your tailor now, K?

Originally Posted by kolecho

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I was Chan's customer for a while. Several things made me drop them: - Inflexible style: They can only deviate a little from their house style.
Not really, Chan was willing give me a short jacket, suppressed waist, flared skirt, etc.. basically whatever I asked for: This is drastically diffrent from what they made for my father who let them do their thing. Chan will pretty much do what you want them to do but you have to tell them what you want and be clear about it.

Originally Posted by kolecho

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- End of CMT service.
Never used their CMT service but considering how accommodating they are I would be surprised if they told a long term customers no.

Originally Posted by kolecho

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- Prices: Seems to be ever esacalating when the rest of HK remains unchanged.
When I first started using Chan shirts were $120. They are $130 now. Not ever escalting or really that much of an increase. I think suiting has gone up ~$100?

I am a quite disappointed with my latest Chan suit - the second of two. The first was ordered on a US tour and fit perfectly when it arrived several months later. As importantly, it was made to my exact specifications.

The second suit I ordered while passing through Hong Kong recently. Despite having asked for a suit identical to the first, the fit got worse, and the construction was not what I had in mind (too much shoulder padding, heavy canvassing, etc.). It definitely seems like it's necessary to be crystal clear about what one wants. I now need to spend $100+ to alter the suit to fit properly. No alterations will fix the construction.

Originally Posted by drake

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Not really, Chan was willing give me a short jacket, suppressed waist, flared skirt, etc.. basically whatever I asked for:

This is drastically diffrent from what they made for my father who let them do their thing. Chan will pretty much do what you want them to do but you have to tell them what you want and be clear about it.


Never used their CMT service but considering how accommodating they are I would be surprised if they told a long term customers no.




When I first started using Chan shirts were $120. They are $130 now. Not ever escalting or really that much of an increase. I think suiting has gone up ~$100?

Try asking Chan to do a drape cut for you. They are good at making tight suits only.

Either you have not used them long enough to realize their price hike, or HK based customers are being priced out in favour of Chan's quasi bespoke US tour.

I had considered Chan as an option in the past, but now that they've ended their CMT service, I wouldn't employ their services.

Time to save for Rubinacci!

I'm thinking of having suits made in this criterion: imagine a man who had all his suits commissioned in the late '50s and '60s, but who wants a suit in the early '70s and still can't get out of his Modernist phase. So he has his suits made in a quasi-'60s/'70s look which looks dated inasmuch in that it has various elements that while harmonious are somewhat obvious.

That's my criterion for a bespoke suit.

LK, havn't you ever wanted anything normal?

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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I'm thinking of having suits made in this criterion: imagine a man who had all his suits commissioned in the late '50s and '60s, but who wants a suit in the early '70s and still can't get out of his Modernist phase. So he has his suits made in a quasi-'60s/'70s look which looks dated inasmuch in that it has various elements that while harmonious are somewhat obvious.

That's my criterion for a bespoke suit.

Originally Posted by drake

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LK, havn't you ever wanted anything normal?

Drake, I think that Chan suit looks very nice.

Originally Posted by kolecho

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Try asking Chan to do a drape cut for you. They are good at making tight suits only.

Either you have not used them long enough to realize their price hike, or HK based customers are being priced out in favour of Chan's quasi bespoke US tour.

kolecho, would you mind telling me what the "house style" at Chan's is? I want to see if it matches with my own needs.

I think the tight suit is what I'm looking for. I'm looking for an athletic fit so waist suppression from Drake's photo it seems like Chan would suit me well.

However, the $2,300 for a suit is over my budget; I was expecting something closer to $1000 with normal (vbc 130s? I still don't know what it stands for).

I tend to do an excessive amount of reading on this site in comparison to contributions. That is probably a crime as a lot of the information I carry with me in regards to style have been absorbed from this site and AAAC.
This subject however struck a personal note so I will relay my experiences with WW Chan.
I employed their service upon the mostly positive recommendations from the forums (or is that fori). I began in early 2006 by meeting with Chan in NYC. The measurements were taken, I picked one shirting and one suit clothe and commisioned one of each to be made for a basted fitting.
3 months later I met them again in Chicago. A few quick adjustments confirmed a very conservative but fitted profile. I believe the suit was in the ballpark of $1700 as I used a Loro Piana Super 130s fabric for its lightweight and had two pairs of trousers made. It would have been $1300 w/o the second pair of pants I believe. The shirt was $100 as they were running a special.
After the suit arrived a had a small issue with the way the arm hole was connected, sent it back and it is fixed to a satisfactory level. Both the suit and shirt fit well and I have a very tall, athletic frame that they worked around.
In the Spring of 2007 I met Chan again in Washington DC and selected 5 shirts and two more fabrics for suits. Without a basted fitting this time I received my items within 3 months. The total bill ran about $4400; 5 shirts @ $120 (no special anymore) and two suits each with two slacks @ $1700 (both H&S Super 120s).
I had very good results on all items. I am sure others have had problems and I certainly don't care to call in to question their bad experiences. Maybe I was lucky, maybe I was an easier build, etc. In any case mine was much better than the gentleman who wrote the article and much cheaper.
I am pretty certain that I could receive better products from a Savile Row or Neapolitan tailor. If nothing else there would likely be a difference in customer service and pleasure of experience, two things that are hard to quantify in cash but valuable nonetheless. This is an assumption of course. I would prefer to not speculate in much more detail on something of which I have no personal experience. When I have an unlimited sum of cash and time I will certainly enjoy the proper bespoke experience. I would have a hard time until that point not using Chan to get custom made items at a very reasonable price point.

Originally Posted by kolecho

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Try asking Chan to do a drape cut for you. They are good at making tight suits only.

Good thing I don't like a drape cut.

But how is this any different from any other tailor that has a house style and doesn't like deviating that much from it? If anything Chan is more willing to deviate from their house style for their customers than most tailoring firms. Go to A&S and tell them you want a suit like Huntsman and I bet they'll tell you to go to Huntsman.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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Drake, I think that Chan suit looks very nice.

Thanks man :3

Originally Posted by Viktri

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kolecho, would you mind telling me what the "house style" at Chan's is? I want to see if it matches with my own needs.

I think the tight suit is what I'm looking for. I'm looking for an athletic fit so waist suppression from Drake's photo it seems like Chan would suit me well.

However, the $2,300 for a suit is over my budget; I was expecting something closer to $1000 with normal (vbc 130s? I still don't know what it stands for).

I'd say around $1,500 for good English fabrics. Less for cheaper fabrics (VBC) and more for Italian fabrics.