[basil]

I've still got a lot to learn in terms of fashion, style and tailoring so dont take my advice and recommendations as gospel.

Jan 2010 I was on a 5 week tour round Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. In the back of my mind going in to the trip I had thought about getting a suit or at least shirt and pants. I was overwhelmed in Thailand by all the options, sprukiers an was honestly turned off the idea.

I had intended to go see Rajawongse in Bangkok, which had been recommended by a friends and I had also read this review by awesome blogger Tynan. Overwhelmed and lacking time there I did not go.

In Hoi An again I was overwhelmed by amount of tailors, in some streets it seemed like every second or third shop was a tailor operation. Most of them are in fact really just sales fronts and showrooms run by a handful of groups that do the work off site. I really couldn't decide on where to go and

A mutual female friend of my traveling partner and I had recommended a little tailor shop near our great hotel Thien Thanh (which I'd highly recommend, beautiful place and they employed some stunning girls who were always parading around in nice fitting silk gowns), she previously had some dresses and a silk gown made and gave us the details and money to get her a new gown made. We were really impressed by the woman (sorry I cant recall her name) who ran the tiny little place, Thanh Na Cloth Shop, seemingly on her own. I can barely find a mention of it on the web, but ive included a pic of the business card, if your interested I hope they are still there.
There is a lil show room in the front with some samples of mens and womens and out back is her work room and storage for all the fabric she had in stock. She didn't have many actual swatches of fabric to sample so i was digging through the huge piles of fabric looking for what I liked the look and feel of.

I decided to have a pair of slacks and a shirt made, the samples out front looked fairlly well made and I found some cloth that seemed good to me but I wasnt really ready to gamble on a suit. I allready had a pretty nice suit that was quite good off the rack before I had it alterd to fit great. Also I still had a lot of travel to do, was traveling light and didnt want to lug around possibly destroy the suit - did not even think of posting it home. With the fabric selected she gave me a quote, i did some bargining - not too much, I didnt want to piss off the person making my stuff and ended up with the nice round figure of $40 USD, after she was orginally quoting in VND (dong the local currency) - i think it was maybe 900k dong. You can see i paid approx half (400k) as deposit in dong, then when happy i paid final $20 USD. We orderd one afternoon, had fitting following night after dinner, and after little alteration on final day there at lunch time I paid rest and left town. I was quite happy with eventual products, they have both recived quite a bit of wear and stood up well in terms of both the fabric and the construction. I've thrown up a few poor camera phone pics of them, perhaps someone more knoweldagable than me can critique the work on them.

   

   

   

   

   

   



My friend got this weird custom jacket made that came out really well, brown almost corduroy fabric, toggle button up, well lined in contrasting green, roll-up sleeves, detachable hoodie, loaded with awesome pockets. He just told her what he wanted and somehow she produced something that looked quite cool in under 3 days.


My advice:
* Go over every detail, pockets, buttons, cuffs, collars. Tell them how you want it cut / to fit. I'm a big guy and I didnt really specify in initial instructions how I wanted them cut and she was making both my shirt and pants quite baggy in the the initial fitting - prob based on previous demands from big customers. I had to tell her no, I want it cut slimmer, I want it to fit, not hang off me like anything off the rack. If you dont tell them exactlly what you want you take pot lock and will most likelly be dissapointed.
* Even better than telling them what you want, show them. If you have a great shirt take that with you and say make another just like it. If you want a baller suit, take good detiled pics of one and show them.
* Take your time. Give yourself and the tailor plenty of days to have proper fittings, review and make changes. Dont be rushed when reviewing the clothes - check everything, question everything. If they are in a rush, go somewhere else. Unfortunatelly I was only in Hoi An for few days so I only had one fitting, then final fitting, where there were few small things I wasnt happy with - fortunatelly she fixed them imediatlly and I paid and was on my to the next town.
* If your not happy when they tell you its finished, tell them to fix it. Most place will have you pay a deposit up front, but dont pay the rest until your are completely happy.