5,000 Baht for a suit? Forget it! Sure there are many places that will make such as suit for you, but it will but complete garbage and a complete waste of your money. 12,000 to 14,000 Baht for a suit? Depends on what you're looking for. If you're someone who's happy with a low-end suit, then there are a few tourist tailors such as Rajas, Rajawongse, or Pinky's which will deliver for that price and you may very well be pleased. People that don't know how to tell the difference between a low-end, an average, and a great suit might be impressed with you wearing such a suit. If that is all you can budget for a suit, then by all means go to one of these tourist tailors. You certainly won't be able to get anything in that price range at Art's or July.

There is a reason why July, Art's or the high-end tailors take time to make a suit. It's because it's impossible to make a good quality custom fitted suit in the time that the tourist tailors will make one for you. For a new customer, it generally takes several fittings to get a suit right so that it looks perfect on you. July or Art's will take the time and give you as many fittings as you need. They won't be happy until you're happy. The tourist tailors will generally not give you enough fittings. They will try to pawn off an ill-fitting suit after one or even no fittings. Going back for many fittings might not be feasible for a tourist who's not staying in Bangkok for long, but if you try to skimp on this the lessened quality of the fit will almost certainly be noticeable. But anyways, up to you to get as good or as poor of a fitting as you want. If I didn't have the time to get a properly fitted suit, I'd personally do without. Or if I made frequent trips to Bangkok have the suit made over multiple trips rather than rush a suit and get one I'm not happy with.

One easy test how good the tailor is to tell them you're only in town for two days and if they can make you a suit or not. The tourist tailors will usually give you a line that you need at least one or two fittings, but when you really push them, they'll end up telling you they can indeed make the suit in such a short time, and they end up giving you only one or even no fittings. They'll often tell you they can deliver the suit to you at the airport. The reason for this is often not that they're being nice to accommodate your schedule, but more because if they deliver it to you at the airport then you can't try it on and complain about how it doesn't fit you well. Try to push the time envelope as much as possible and see how the tailor responds. A good tailor will tell you he can't rush the suit or reduce the number of fittings because he knows the quality will suffer. He will refuse your business because he knows making a bad suit is bad for his reputation. A bad tailor will do whatever he needs to sell you a suit, even if it means rushing the suit and giving you a very poor quality and poor fitting suit. A bad tailor is only interested in getting your money.

So if your budget only allows for one of the budget tourist tailors, then I'd personally say you're better off going to Raja or Rajawongse, or even better Pinky's. They're all pretty much similar quality from what I've seen, but Pinky's has a definite edge in a selection of better fabrics for which you'll pay a bit more. So at least you can look at the better fabrics first and then decide which fabric is best for you. Forget about Crown Tailors. Just go into their shop and look at their sample work compared to the others and it's very easy to see their quality is well below that of Raja or Rajawongse, yet their prices are about the same. Very bad value for your money in that you'll be getting the absolute lowest of quality but paying a premium price for it.

Whatever you do, do no settle for a suit if it does not fit you well. And don't listen to the tailor. A tourist tailor will generally always tell you how great the suit looks on you. Maybe they will take a quick look and tell you they need to make a few adjustments, but that'll likely be all. If you don't know how a suit should fit you, better to take someone along with you who can give you their honest opinion. Don't trust the tailor's opinion because he's most likely interested in getting you out of his shop as quickly as possible with as few fittings as he can get away with. Also know in advance what you want and be very specific in telling the tailor what you want. Many of them will just make a standard suit or standard shirt for you and only ask you a few basic questions about fit, style, etc. Some won't even do that. There are many details about a custom suit that you need to inform the tailor of or else you will be getting his suit and not your own suit. If you don't know, look at pictures and get him to copy the style of what you think looks good. And be sure to ask to see samples of his work. Look carefully at stitching, buttons, collars, cuffs, etc. A quick glance at a suit and it will likely look great to an untrained eye. But when you start to examine it carefully you'll start to notice things. Some things you'll like and some you won't. Tell the tailor what are all your preferences ahead of time, and even write them down yourself so that you can be sure you've told him. And don't forget to tell him precisely about how the suit should fit. Do you like a tighter fit, a normal fit, or a loose fit? Then at the first fitting check each of these points to be sure he's followed through with your wishes. Never settle for second best. Never pay the tailor the full amount up front. Give him as little deposit as possible so that he has a good incentive to deliver to you the suit you want. If he can't deliver what he promised then walk away even if it means losing your deposit.

One technique I like to use is to go into a tailor and ask what his lowest cost suit is and have a look at that. Pretend you're on a very tight budget and see how low he can go. A good tailor generally won't sell you anything at the very low-end because he knows you won't be happy with it and it will be bad for his reputation. A tailor who is willing to sell you a 5,000 Baht suit shouldn't be getting your business. Then ask him what his very highest price suit is and ask to see that and check out the quality of that. In knowing his full range of prices and looking at the quality of each you can generally get a good idea of what the tailor is all about rather quickly.

If you're interested in Pinky's, he's located at Phloen Chit BTS station, behind Mahatun Plaza, which is the big building where King Power used to be but was vacated the last time I saw it.