Sounds to me like you did not bargain very hard. While I did not get anything done very recently, these price are more than double what I paid. Never accept the first price that they offer. Or gthe second....
With respect to other previous comments, Ya Xiu closed and re-opened under a totally different concept. Forget this place for a suite.
Regarding the quality. I had a few suits made and have been wearing them for several years now. Not quite as good as my late Italian tailor back home but I paid 1400RMB for a suit with 3 pairs of pants while my Italian guy was charging $2000 for a suit with 2 pairs of pants. If you are not happy with the fit or whatever else, keep giving it back for alterations until you are happy. You obviously need time for this.
When I took friends to tailors, I found that the result was best when you'd give them a suit that you like for measures. More precise than taking your measurements and quicker. I always had my suits made or alterations made overnight.

JPDM, with all due respect, I think the tone of your comment is dismissive and also inaccurate for this sort of situation. Jenny is not a Yaxiu market-type tailor. Generally, with these tailors in the private expat network, their labor prices are their labor prices, variation in materials price of course. You don't "bargain", at least not if you want to keep the relationship. Discounting may happen when a large volume is purchased or for an established customer. I actually don't find these prices out of line at all, in fact if the quality is as good as @Cdnblue says, they are quite decent prices. In the end, it's all about value-for-money, for the specific purpose and lifestyle one wants the clothes to fulfill. But as said above by @trueblu, a follow-up after a year to discuss how the clothes are holding up, would be great.

@cdnblue: Were the shirt prices you listed per lot (e.g. 6 shirts for 400) or per shirt (e.g. shirts = 400/each)?

(I only know shirts these days, but can use shirt data to infer a general opinion on value delivered by tailor X.)

Hi there!

For reference here is everything we purchased and the prices I can remember, itemized:

Prices in RMB
Mens and ladies shirts – 400 RMB/each (This is more than double the going price for standard custom shirts in Shanghai - fyi).
Suits – 2,500 each (3 two pieces suits, one of which was a ladies suit and one two piece black tuxedo - although I think we paid a bit more for the tux than 2,500 RMB but I didn't write that one down).
Pants – 1,500 each (2 pairs of men's trousers and one pair of ladies fashion trousers, which I designed with wide legs, low rise, large belt loops, fitted but, etc....)
Over coats -2,600 (2 men's overcoats in wool and 50% cashmere)

We also purchased one white ladies suit shirt and another one that is a white ladies tuxedo tunic type shirt (hard to describe but she tailored what I designed), and one sparkly evening jacket similar to a suit jacket but made for evening wear for a lady.

Again, you can get cheaper likely if you have time to go from tailor to tailor and play them off against one another with pricing but we just didn't have the time nor were interested in getting the cheapest price. We wanted the best quality for a volume order meaning we had to do our research ahead of time, pick our horse and go with it. Jenny did not disappoint us.

In case anyone else is curious here is a list of the total cost of our trip:

Hong Kong activities
Hong Kong – HKD

Book Hyatt Kowlooon on points. Lovely hotel. Paid for breakfast 374
Uber to get to Peak Tram 63
Tram tkts for three 270
Taxi from airport to Kowloon 330
Star Ferry for 3ppl 6
Drinks for three during the day 65
Taxi 330 back to airport to fly to Beijing
Taxi 330 from airport when coming back in to catch CX flights back to ORD
Taxi 330 back to airport from Holiday Inn Soho (hotel we stayed in one night when overnight connecting from Beijing back to ORD)
Holiday Inn Soho one night = 1015
Total of $387 USD

China –RMB
Great Wall car and driver (included tip) 360
Dadong restaurant for Peking Duck for Thanksgiving 540
Lina - Tour guide tip 200
Lunch with Lina in local spot 280
Massages X 3 at Liangi Z on Wangfujing street 794
Taxi around town -22.00
Sunflower tour guide – 200 +100+50+45 (tips, taxi, bus, subway)
Taxi around town 100
TRB restaurant for special birthday dinner for husband 1465
Extra bed in King Lifestyle suite for my 7 year son -1,200
Total of $876 USD

Stuff we bought at Silk market and elsewhere (I let my 7 year old do some of the negotiation :)
Drone at 250 rmb (we over paid for this but that's what happens when a 7 year old wants something
Blvgari knock off watch 600 rmb
2 pair of reading glasses for me and 1 pair of everyday for my husband (3 pairs) 1200 rmb for 3
Alex shirts (3 sweaters and 3 long sleeve fashion shirts) (6) 1700 rmb
Leather Prada handbag large and small black rhinstone Chanel evening clutch 1684
Extra coat with Jenny we had made last minute 2500 rmb
one men's Belt 180 or $28
2 suitcases 675 or $105 (started at 3600)
2 pairs of Converse knock off shoes 425 or $66
5 pairs of men's and ladies jeans 1500 $234 or $46 each (should have paid only 125 rmb each as that is the going rate but I would rather pay a premium than have to run around to other jean shop, try everything on again and then negotiate all over again. You must factor in what you time is worth. Time is precious with a 7 year old in tow who is not interested in shopping with mom and dad.
Total of $1677 USD

As a general rule of thumb in negotiation take whatever price you are quoted and quote back to the vendor 10% of that as the price you want to pay. Then go up incrementally from there. Depending on how much time you have will dictate what increments you will want to increase slowly. When you're at 15 -20% that's when you should say final price and be prepared to walk away. The next shop will likely have the same stuff and you can start the process all over again. If you're like me and put a $ value on time just pay what you think is fair for the quality of the item. IE: the handbag I purchased is not one of the cheaper Louis Vuitton knock offs. It is full supple leather, without large, screaming Prada markings and is well constructed with nicely sewn lining etc... I also purchased an Chanel evening bag with the handbag.

Jenny - tailor at $3,100 USD
Hilton Wangfujing - got a BRG and had 1 night free with my citi thankyou points. $760.00 for 4 nights + $626.00 for extra bed I mention above and one dinner and one lunch and one room service order we had on property and charged to the room.

Taxi to airport and from airport in Chicago was $70.00 (I argued with my husband to take an uber because it is less but he won on the taxi).

Total cost of trip was = $6,636.62

We flew CX business direct to HKG and then Dragonair to PEK. Taxes and fees on tickets was $70.80 roughly each way per ticket.

I'm sure we spent a little more money here or there that I din't write down but this is pretty exhaustive.

400 RMB per shirt.

I'm glad you point that out. I actually did attempt to bargain with her. When I did so she smiled kindly and gently and then very politely explained to me that she does not bargain on pricing. She has an established business that operates differently than other tailors in Beijing. She told me we are not the cheapest but we provide quality work and care about what we produce.

I am a very good read of people and she sold me on this statement right away. We operate our lives the same way Jenny does her business. Jenny looks for the long term relationships and expects to work with her clients forever. You WILL pay more by shopping with Jenny so just know that going in. But, you will have access to top quality Italian fabrics and cottons and a woman who cares about doing the job right. I care more about the ongoing relationship and quality of the work than I do about an additional discount. And, now that she has our measurements we can order anything from her and she'll ship it to us.

You can likely have shirts made for less if you choose a fabric one or two steps down from what we choose. And, you don't have to have an overcoat made in wool and 50% cashmere. You can use 30% cashmere or just plain wool. Taking out the cashmere will reduce the price a bunch. The suits were made out of 120 silks. You can chose an 80 silk and get a much less expense suite that is also well made. The materials you choose will impact your prices so understand what you need/want. My husband is picky so he only wanted the best. Me not so much :)

The prices we paid are well above what you will find at the Silk Market or other tailors around town but we care more about quality and timing than we do about price. Just FYI.

Thanks CdnBlue,

Very comprehensive. Just a few questions:

1. Shirt prices seem considerably more (relatively speaking) than the suite prices you paid -- and much more than prices for shirts at that tailor quoted on the interweb -- you did mention fabric, but any other reason?

2. You mention 120s silk: 120s is usually a fineness measure for wool in suits: were the suits wool or silk?

3. Without meaning to criticise too much: I'm blown away that you shop around for a quality tailor in BJ and then are willing to blow >$1500 in the Silk Market!! I again appreciate your comment about 'relative quality' of the knock-off, but I just don't get it? After four years here, we've still never bought anything substantial at these markets (except at a lovely Cashmere stall at Yashow that has now disappeared -- they generally only sold unbranded goods at fair prices). Partly because I refuse to buy fakes on principle, but also because the quality is just subpar. There are (reportedly) some 'grey market' 'fakes' around, which are very good quality, but they _never_ operate in the Silk/ Pearl market but in rather more dodgy circumstances, because the IP holders are far more worried about those guys and actively try to shut them down.

4. Back to the suiting: were your wools (assuming it's that) and cottons for the shirts from branded suppliers (e.g. Zegna, Holland and Sherry etc.)?

tb

ETA: also, I just want to clarify the pricing. Adding up everything you ordered according to the second post comes to ~$4000...something is wrong (assuming I read correctly that you had 6 shirts made).

The other thing that should be remembered when analyzing @Cdnblue's pricing, is that for tailor Jenny, this was a rush job not a standard-paced one for a typical resident expat who has more time. An urgent turnaround is understood to involve premium pricing for labor, even if it isn't explicitly stated.

I have to disagree with you JieJie. You can bargain pretty much everything in China. I have bargained down prices in restaurants and in in department stores although it is rather uncommon in the latter. I would expect to bargain with any tailor.

@Cdnblue - who is the driver that you found at 360RMB for the Great Wall. Any contact info.
About the guides, you only tipped them but did not pay any other fee?

You can always try, but it doesn't often work with the good, in-demand private tailors. They'll just refuse your business. I didn't use Jenny, but sometimes Fei Fei (mixed feelings about her work) and a guy named "Tailor Chen" who didn't have a retail shop but only did house calls by appointment (no English spoken). Their prices for various services were pretty well set.

Frankly, it's d@mn hard to find a great tailor and especially for women's clothes, and I'd rather have the relationship than quibble over what's essentially a pittance at least as far as business/dressy clothes go. Department store goods and competent restaurants are a dime a dozen in Beijing/China, so there's not much relationship to risk there by bargaining and having to walk away empty-handed.

I'll respond to your questions one by one:

1. No special situation for the shirts. Just good quality, good fit, top end cotton.

2. I meant wool not silk. As you likely are aware there is really no way for me to verify if in fact the wool was 120 or 90. It was top grade by my own assessment having purchased Zegna and other top brands for my husband here in the USA.

3. No criticism taken ;). We enjoyed the "fun" of teaching our 7 year old to bargain for things and we had a great morning talking and bargaining with the sales people. They were fun. The clothes we purchased are kick around clothes like shirts, sweaters and jeans. Stuff one would wear on a weekend crawling around on a floor playing Lego army guys. Standard jeans downtown Chicago will run me $125 - $150 a pair and they look the same and just plain denim and stretchy denim. The purchase of my two handbags did not happen in a store front. I walked into a very nice looking store but then told the salesperson I didn't want the cheap quality bags showing on the shelves and asked where to find the "better quality" items. She then took me, my husband and my son to the parking garage and over to what looked like a utility closet. she knocked and a man opened the door and let us in. Inside was wall to wall knock off bags, most of them were thee cheap Louis Vuitton ones that everyone tries to sell you. I looked around and said "No", I'm looking for real leather, quality stitching, etc.. that's when he opened a curtain at the back and I saw the very good quality bags. Like I said, I purchased a very large black knock off Prada tote. I actually would have paid more if it didn't say Prada on it but it was supple leather and the type of quality I wanted for the right price. Someone else might pay more and someone else might pay less you just have to get what you feel good about paying. My evening bag is beautiful and doesn't need to be top quality because it gets very gently use.

4. No. Jenny can get almost anything but she chooses to stock her store with only the best quality items she things she can sell. She loves wool and cashmere. she makes all her own clothes too and wears them at the store. If you go to the store you will see many items she had made in both men's and women's styles. She has some items she makes on spec sitting on racks for her customers to buy off the racks. Since you live there go to her store and tell her Rhea sent you and ask to look at her men's and women's items. She will let you see everything. You can inspect her work for yourself and see the fabrics she has on hand. Or, you can discuss the type of fabric you want and ask if she can source it for you. We liked Jenny so much we invited her and her husband and daughter to visit us and be our guests at our home in Chicago. She's never been out of Beijing before but if she ever plans to travel she said she'd take us up on it.

Lastly, getting a fair price was our goal. Fair to some is less than what we paid and fair to others may be more than what we paid. We paid her a nice sum of money for a large order and challenged her to complete it all in 4.5 days. When we were being measured she appropriately set our expectations telling us she wasn't sure she could get it all done but would be happy to FedX whatever was not complete to us. We weren't expecting it to be all done. We returned to her shop on Friday for sizing and fit of half made items. Once we determined everything was fit correctly she worked madly to get it all done by Sunday at 3pm. She did it and we were so appreciative.

I will send pictures if I can find enough time to learn how to upload them to Flyertalk. Feel free to ask anymore questions. I'm happy to share.

Sometimes in life you just have to go for it. This was one of those times that we trusted her and placed a large order up front without having seen anything made for us previously. However, the risk was pretty low given that I had her referrals and could see the work of the garments she had on the racks.

I hope this helps.

I try to live my life by this exact statement. ^

Hi JPDM - the 360 was not the driver fee, just the cable car fee, entrance fee and tip for the driver. We used Sunflower Tours for two full days. Each day was $110 and $120 for two days and then $150 for the Great Wall. These fees were paid via Paypal before we left the USA. Sunflower came highly recommended by another Flyertalk friend @PLarue who was there the week prior. Sunflower was terrific. Again, not the cheapest but because we had a friend who had just experienced her service we went with it.

You can get a car to great wall cheaper than $150 USD but we wanted one with working seat belts and a driver that was trusted. We had precious cargo on board (our 7 year old son).

Same philosophy applied here as with the Tailor - we paid more than you can likely find if you shop around and play each tour guide off each other but why bother? saving an extra $25 - $50 and getting rock bottom pricing just wasn't that important to us. I'm a frugal shopper but the laws of diminishing returns kick in at some point. Guess that's why I love the points game. We take 10 - 12 trips a year mostly on points and always in business if international. We get hotels covered too. If I'm able to take what would otherwise be a 20,000 USD trip for 5,000 USD then I care less about squeezing the tour guides and the tailors who provide me an excellent service.

Cheers.

Thanks Cdnblue.

You certainly give a ringing endorsement. I too really believe in developing relationships with owner-operators, so am happy to pay above rock-bottom market prices for a commensurate increase in quality and a trusting (both ways) relationship.

I shall certainly check out Jenny on your recommendations....although I don't think I'll order 4 suits up-front like you did! For one thing, my wife would insist I throw out 4 suits, and I'm not much good at throwing away stuff (which is why I rarely buy stuff).

tb