TRAVELSIG

Good advice on the WW Chan non-branded cloth.

Loro Piana and Zegna same price? Wow- the price differential here in Italy between the two is 50-60%- however I am talking ex-works factory so there may be a large difference by the time it arrives through a distributor and an agent in Hong Kong.

flymao

Thanks again everyone.

I ended up going to Danny's as they were the most responsive and helpful over email - and have gone for a jacket in their 'nicest' lightweight Zenga fabric - costing $4,400 (pants would have been $2,000 more - but I rarely wear a full suit).

Interested to see how it turns out - though if i'm not happy with the end product, I guess i'll have to save a few pennies and go to WW Chan.

Anyhow, first fitting on Monday!

Simonsgrant

I had a good experience with Empire International. Read about them in the paper and had some suits made when they visited :

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/fa...hong-kong.html

nologic

Well, I emailed back and forth with Danny's and they confirmed that they use their own tailors and have extensive detail to workmanship, never glue or fuse garments, etc. Their prices are at least 33-50% less than WW Chan...so, I decided to give them a try, based on Josh's research (although have yet to hear his opinion, not that he can compare to WW Chan).

I also decided to be a little more innovative in my styling and am trying to copy a blazer style I saw at Shanghai Tang which I emailed to them from pics I took on my cell phone. The blazer is a combination of Chinese and Western styles, as Shanghai Tang is known for. I was a little disappointed in not being able to find the fabric I really wanted, which was a copy of the summer weight herringbone cashmere at Shanghai Tang (where the jacket retails for HKD 14,500).

While I think WW Chan has a MUCH better selection of fabrics, I decided to give Danny's a try for one blazer, three pants, and four shirts. Three of their shirts are being made from their standard British cloth for HKD 350 each (curious to compare the feel when completed -- often I am disappointed in shirts at this price point) and one is from a finer Swiss fabric for HKD 495. The pants were approximately HKD 1050-1200 each, one of which is silk crepe like fabric and the other are some funky summer weight textured material...definitely not in the class of Super 150s/180s or Zegna cloth, but that wasn't what I was looking for on this trip. The blazer was priced around 2800 +/- and is a being cut from a cool light weight blue herringbone wool/cashmere blend, and I think I have a very fine sense of feel/touch for these things (FYI: their premium 100% cashmere blazer would have been about HKD 4000, but I didn't want the weight or a plain solid fabric).

We are being innovative/playful with the finishes, linings, button holes, etc. and I think they were both very helpful and accommodating. Of course, the devil in in the details. I am curious to see the outcome.

flymao

First fitting went well and managed to iron out the details I wanted.

Regardless of where you go, I would recommend you do as much research as possible not just into the tailor, but also in knowing what suit you want. Knowing exactly what you want (with every exact detail) and being firm about it is the best way to get a suit that you will love, rather than like.

Never be afraid to ask questions and to back up your descriptions with pictures. After the initial measure up I sent them perhaps 3 or 4 pictures of lapels, how I want it to fit, shape and interior pocket details. I was also very specific in asking for things like functional buttons on the cuffs, bone buttons (rather than plastic), hand stitching (no gluing) - all of which has been accommodated.

I agree though that the choice of fabric is probably not as great as some of the slightly more expensive tailors - for example, they didn't have the Loro Piana fabric in the style I initially wanted.

I also had them copy my favourite white shirt (from UK retailer Reiss) - and after picking it up at my fitting yesterday they seem to have done a great job with that too and the quality and fit is perfect.

nologic - they thanked me and said that you mentioned my recommendation online - they said that they will give me a discount on my next suit because of it

All in all - a very good experience so far.

nologic

I had my first fitting today, 24 hours after selecting my fabrics and placing my order. It seemed to go well. They had a rough cut of the blazer and a rough cut of one pair of pants, and a fully completed shirt. After the fitting, they will use the adjustments and the measurements to finish the blazer, pants, and then make 2 additional pairs of pants and 3 other shirts. These are all to be ready in 72 hours (I possibly could have requested sooner, but am fine with this timetable).

I like their attention to detail, and their willingness to satisfy customer requests. Their "standard" British cloth shirting fabric for HKD 350 is very nice (better than most shirts I've seen at 2x the price) and the Swiss fabric for HKD 495 is even superior quality and an excellent value at that price. I think I will be very happy with the cashmere and wool blend fabric I selected for my blazer, which I think is a true "find" (it also took a lot of time to find it -- it is extremely soft and has good character and texture), and I am pleased with the other fabrics for the pants I purchased. Given that I was not looking for business attire, it took more work than usual to go out of the box to find fabrics which are distinctive and which I would wear on an every day basis. I also pre-selected some other fabrics for potential future clothes, which for blazers would cost around HKD 2500-2900 for non-branded cloths to HKD 4500 for a nice, soft pure cashmere blazer and HKD 4400-5000+ for some Zegna fabrics.

About the only thing I am disappointed in at this point is that their selection of high end fabrics is limited. On the other hand, their selection of nice non-branded fabrics at good values seems excellent: they seem to have done a good job selecting suppliers that have good non-branded quality at good prices. But they only have 3 books of Zegna swatches (and little to no Zegna materials on premises) and they do not carry any Loro Piana fabrics. I am not sure they even carry Hollland and Sherry which is an upper mid level branded fabric supplier and a staple for many tailor shops (usually priced less than Zegna and Loro Piana, but more than other non-branded fabrics). I am hoping that I will be happy with the result and will want to stay with them for future orders, but I won't know for a few days.

Lastly, they do not provide lifetime free alterations like some other shops, such as WW Chan. I had them alter my WW Chan blazer and they charged me HKD 350 (they said it took them 3 hours for the blazer alteration), which WW Chan would have done for free, but I was too lazy/tired to go down the street to them for that.

I do like the creativity of the head tailor. He has added suggestions for extra touches, such as contrasting lining for the interior of shirt collars and different colors for certain button holes and the button threads, which I think will make the shirts more fun and more interesting...which is my intent with these garments, which are casual and not meant to be business attire (except the one Swiss cloth shirt, which is designed to be a classic business shirt to be worn with a suit and tie).

I also had them measure my classic Zegna blazer for the future so that they could copy the sizing and styling style for future jacket orders, if I desire.

To be continued...it sounds like Josh is also progressing well with his tropical weight Zegna blazer.

By the way, they also do women's clothing, which is a sub-specialty (as does WW Chan) that many tailor shops are not equipped to accommodate. While I was there for my fitting, one young British woman stopped by for a fitting for a long formal dress with an exposed shoulder she was having made. There was also an elegant woman's suit in process hanging on the racks made from elegant golden fabric provided by a customer from Thailand.

flymao

Hmm, they did have 2/3 Loro Piana swatches when I went in, and various patterns/cloths - just not the plain black I wanted.

If you don't mind me asking - what did you go for at WW Chan and how much did they charge?

jddj

A long post here 'cause I used FlyerTalk for a lot of my research, and wanted to give back. Thanks to those who left the breadcrumbs before me.

After looking online for quite a while and considering a bunch of tailors, I headed for Danny's as well.

First: I'm not a clothes horse. Have been buying off the rack at Macy's, and don't have a closet full of suits, though I do wear dress pants and shirts daily. Wouldn't know the name of a suit fabric company.

Second: I'm probably not a very good haggler, but am happy with the value I got for the price.

I just wanted to take advantage of the trip to HK to get a bespoke suit - in part because of the kick of it, and in part because I'd heard you got a lot of value for the money.

I'd written ahead, and Singh at Danny's was very helpful and responsive. Danny's son was minding a US tour at the time of my visit, and Singh was minding the store.

I had maybe 6 days in-country, and was staying way out in Sha Tin for a conference, though the MTR made it easy to get down for the various fittings, where my schedule could accommodate.

Danny's is in "Far East Mansion Arcade" (if you've never been to HK, you're going to be amused at the kind of shopping arcade for which "Mansion" is a euphemism all over TST: kinda low-brow, but Danny's modest shop was fine, and Singh's hospitality, knowledge and service were great).

From the MTR at East Tsim Sha Tsui exit L1 is right next door to Far East Mansions, but K comes up right across the street, too. For whatever reason, I kept bumbling out of K. First-time HK visitors note: there are two Tsim Sha Tsui MTR staions: TST and TST East. TST East is where you wanna be, though the stations connect underground.

I went in on a Thursday AM, got measured, and because my Fri/Sat were booked solid, arranged for a Thursday eve first fitting, as I'd be back in TST anyway. After some discussion, I wound up ordering 2 bespoke suits: a 4-piece (2 pair trousers) that I was really specific about, and a 2-piece that was pretty much "a standard suit to my measurements, sorta like the other one". The 4-piece was a dark grey Prince-of-Wales check, and the other a lighter grey PoW. We worked it into a package that would also have 3 custom shirts, and a couple neckties.

I'd brought some photo source for the suit design I wanted, and had planned some specifics before I left home: Mid-peak lapel, dual vents, measurements for certain pocket sizes, etc. I wanted a particular cut for the vest, and discovered at the first fitting that this wasn't being done as specified. No problem - was able to correct this at first-fitting time and the final cut was perfect - JUST as I'd wanted it.

The tailor who came for the fitting was a tallish, thin Asian man, with a friendly enough manner, but not a lot of English (maybe a little more than most Asian HKers I met). Didn't matter - he took care of me, knew the right questions to ask, things to make me do for the fitting.

Because of my busy schedule on the trip, I'd have to pick up the goods at 4:30 PM Monday, the day before my trip back. This wound up working out just fine, though I'd say if you have time for another fitting on the way to completion, do get another one done. There were a couple things that I'd have had tweaked if I'd had another day in town, but nothing that really bugged me (in particular, I'd asked for deeper-than-usual pant pockets, and these were the standard, and I might've gotten from very, very good fit to insanely perfect in some respects).

When I got to the shop, my custom shirts were in already, and my initial impression based on a look, a touch, was of very high-quality workmanship. I'd ordered a herringbone grey, a blue check and a white-on-white. In all three shirts, the pockets, button-strip and cuff fittings were lined up PERFECTLY with the patterns in the fabric. It's like they'd moulded the fabric into a shirt - amazing. There were none of the "just clip that off" threads I find on off-the-rack shirts, and they were finished perfectly, very, very nicely indeed. I put the first on, and a revelation: This is the first shirt I've ever had on that fits my neck, my shoulders, my arms and my girth at the same time. I typically have a comfy neck and baggy arms, shoulders on my upper arms, or a shirt that's snug around the middle, arms correct, but which I can't get closed for a tie. I will be having more of these shirts made!

Very pleased when the tailor arrived with the completed suits. First impression on donning the 4-pc jacket: "Wow...this has been made by someone who knows what it's like to be too hot in your clothes. This feels great!" Fit on the suit, jacket and pants were wonderful, with maybe one measurement on the pants a little more snug than I woulda liked. If I'd had another day, would've got this touched. But really, it was fine.

Many nice touches to the suit construction that I wouldn't have expected. The vest is adjustable with a belt attachment. The pants have nice gripper strips, and the jackets have armpit shields. No fusing from what I can tell (not an expert, but tried the tests I've seen online and I looked for stitching and found it).

As Singh predicted, the shirt fabrics were a nice match for the suits, and I picked out a couple of ties (nothing special here, but they were kind of a gimme anyway...).

All told: 1 4-pc suit, 1 2-pc suit, 3 custom shirts, 2 ties, total around $1100 USD. With personal attention, start to finish in about 5 days total. Very happy.

Note: To run your card, Danny's needs a credit card from which they can take an impression (i.e. raised letters, not like the card I wanted to use). They don't have a mag-stripe reader. FYI...

---
You-didn't-ask-me-but-I'm-telling-you: If you need to find a toy, either as a gift for someone in HK or to take home, I highly recommend "The Toy Museum" in Central (this is a shop, not a museum - and I think there's an actual museum of HK toys around - this isn't it).

The Toy Museum is at 320 Prince's building, Central - it's on the 3rd floor of a nice shopping arcade, Exit K from Central MTR station. Take a right as you top the stairs from the MTR, you're looking at the side entrance to the building.

The Toy Museum is a small shop, but every single inch is crammed with toys - higher toy density than anyplace I've been. The proprietor, Ambrose Lee, has to peer out from between toys to talk to you. He loves what he does, and is friendly and helpful. This was a destination store for me, and I can recommend it as such. Here's someone else's post on it: http://j3tourshk.posterous.com/simpl...p-in-hong-kong

JDiver

Welcome to FlyerTalk, jddj!

Your post was delayed - spam suppression protocols mean that the the system puts you post (first post with web link) into a queue for moderator approval. Our apologies for any delays or inconveniences to you and the members.

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JDiver, Senior Moderator

flymao

Changing the subject slightly - does anyone know of a decent place for alterations? I just want a couple of shirts and some jeans altered - without the feeling of being pressured into buying another suit

slickalick

Yes, go to the 2nd floor of worldwide house in central. Plenty of professional alteration shops at reasonable prices. The one I use if to the right of the escalator coming up near the magazine shop.

flymao

Second fitting at Danny's, and have to say since my last post - it has been a bit disappointing.

Having been very specific about a number of issues when it came to fit (slim cut, slimmer across the shoulders, deeper V, shorter sleeves) - all of those were not taken care of - it was just too big and too boxy.

When the tailor came in to talk about it, I pointed all of this out - and he got angry with me! He told me I needed room to move when wearing the suit, but I said did you not see the photos I emailed? I want 'slim fit', and shape - but he started shouting some more in Chinese to Singh. Honestly I have had better suits off the rack than this first effort. I am going to reserve judgement until the next fitting, but so far not great. The only plus point so far is that the finish (buttons, stitching, pocket details etc) looked really nice, the Zenga fabric was beautiful - but unfortunately those details are irrelevant if the suit doesn't fit!

Seeing as my parents were in town for the first time, I also suggested that my father should get a suit made - and again, the process has been far from smooth. They told him to come in for the first fitting, and nothing was ready. They made him try on a different jacket to get measurements and that his jacket would be ready to pick up the same time as my second fitting. Seemed a bit strange as there really wasn't a first fitting at all, and surprise surprise - the same problems as mine - jacket was too big, shoulders too big, just boxy and ill fitting. Once again the tailor got mad when we said that it didn't fit properly. We weren't rude, we didn't get upset - we just knew what we wanted and the tailor was

He leaves on Wednesday and the jacket is ready for Tuesday. Again - reserving judgement until adjustments have been made.

Will post another update on Tuesday, when my father gets his suit and then another later in the week when I have my third fitting.

jddj

Wow, night-and-day difference from my time there. Not denying your experience - I just had a different one.

I did have to make them adjust the vest neck cut significantly on my nicer suit at first fitting, but the tailor (who did disagree with me, but politely so) got it perfect at that point. Not close - perfect. I had some convincing to do, that the number and spacing of vest buttons would be fine with me with the deeper and specialty-cut neck - the tailor thought it wouldn't work, but what came out satisfied me well.

Wonder if we had different tailors. Tallish slim Asian guy? Kinda sharp features?

Hope all is OK by delivery!

nologic

I give Danny's thumbs up for the reasons I expressed previously and the commitment to please. I was doing t lot of things with numerous garments. They got a few small things wrong (like a French cuff shirt came out w button cuffs, and some buttone holes which I ordered in a ceratin color came out white...but if I had time, they would have totally corrected/replaced them.

I think the fit of the blazers is amazing. I ended up with two blazers.

One of the blazers was a Shanghai Tang adaptation from pics are took some work, but was a really good execution. The other was a Zegna copy and they had the origianal to measure, and they got it right the first time.

Alex, the owner (son of the founder) and Singh (the store manager) are comiited to your satisfaction.

The limitation is in fabrics and time. They can't get fabrics that they don't have access to, and if you don't have the time, you can't refine the fit once you leave -- but they will make adjustments until you are happy.

The price/value is high.

Thank you Josh.

flymao

Well the time came to pick up my fathers suit and the result was 'ok'. Some of the alterations were made - but was still too loose and boxy. Unfortunately my father leaves first thing tomorrow morning, so does not have time to make further alterations, so will have to do this in the UK. Of course I am a little upset as at the end of the day he wasn't happy with the experience he had. I appreciate that he had 7 days from start to finish to have suit made (which should still be plenty of time), but having not had a first fitting before finishing the jacket was sloppy and a bit unprofessional if you ask me.

In terms of customer service and politeness of both the staff at Dannys, both Alex and Singh are very friendly and polite, and I am sure they will not do me wrong - but at the end of the day they aren't making the products themselves.

jjdc - it definately was the same tailor that you had and whilst I appreciate that the tailor has years of experience, and was very polite on the first fitting when it came to my fitting, he was trying to tell me what I wanted, despite my very specific requests. I don't know whether slimmer fitting, tapered jackets are more of a western thing - or having sleeve length come down to your knuckles is an Asian thing - but still, I know what I want, was very specific and that's why I am paying for bespoke and not getting off the peg.

Again, I'll reserve final judgement until I get the finished article, but as I live here, and have the time to keep going back until it's right - I won't be settling until i'm happy. Will post another report on Friday when my first set of alterations are finished.