becreative

kdragondrummer what were the charges for getting your suit at moonriver?

i have been looking for a tailor but it seems like the prices you pay for stitching are much higher than i would have expected (7,000 to 10,000 thb at some of the tailors mentioned in this thread and this is after you provide your own fabric).

That works out to $250 to $350 to get a fused suit stitched in thailand. i mean you add in a few hundred dollars for the fabric and you are looking at about $500 to $700 for a fused suit stitched in bangkok.

I was able to buy a suit for about 350 GBP from Ede & Ravenscroft in the UK (at a sale where the regular price was double that) (add in 30 GBP for alterations and I had a good suit for under 380 GBP or about $600). Although it was a RTW suit, atleast with Ede & Ravenscroft I can trust the fabric quality and they do have a great cut.

So I am seriously trying to figure out if there is any value in getting a suit stitched in bangkok at all. I mean for $250 I could get a suit with a fully canvassed jacket stitched in India!!

saatx

The price mentioned is including the fabric not without fabric.

Dr. HFH

I believe that all prices at BKK tailors include material.

becreative

The prices I have mentioned are actually just stitching charges without the fabric (you provide your own fabric). At least this was what was quoted by two of the tailors being discussed in this thread. This is not Rajawongse or others but the ones that people tend to put in a slightly higher category.

Rocket2511

Does anybody has any recent experience with Pinky tailor.

I had 3 suites on a couple of shirts made by him two year ago and was quite pleased. Thinking about trying tailoronten during my next virsit too.

Does anybody has tried both yet?

broadwayboy

Anyone know a stylish BKK tailor who can make custom shirts with interesting cuffs or collar (contrasting lining in accent silk fabrics or such)?

becreative

Now that I am back from BKK I wanted to share my experience with all of you. It may or may not help anyone.

I was unable to get my friends dad's tailor to make the suit for me due to the schedule being very tight and my other commitments in thailand.

So I ended up at Milan Suits and Bangkok Fashions. I got a shirt made at Milan Suits and his charges are 1200 thb for a shirt with materials or 1000 thb for a shirt if you provide materials. The suit stitching was quoted at 6000 thb for a 3 piece suit and pants at 1700 thb. This was if you were providing your own material. So I decided to initially get 1 shirt made with materials to see if there were big differences between the quality of stitching, style etc at Milan vs Bangkok Fashions.

At Bangkok Fashions the stitching charges were less than 1/2 of Milan Suits. A 3 piece suit cost (I was originally only planning on getting a 2 piece stitched but ended up getting a vest as well as I had more than enough material). The 3 piece suit stitching was about 4000 thb. I had provided the fabric for the material, lining and buttons. The stitching for shirts was 450 thb (400 thb for the shirt and an extra 50 for french cuffs). I had brought in materials for the shirts with me.

On the initial shirts, I couldn't tell much difference between the shirt from Milan or Bangkok Fashions. The one difference was the stiffness of the collars and cuffs with the collars and cuffs being substantially more stiff at Bangkok Fashions. I am hoping that after a few washes they will soften up. The other subtle difference was that the shirt from Bangkok Fashions had a strip in the pocket to hold a pen (which i thought was a nice touch). So because of no noticeable difference in quality of stitching the choice was easy to go with Bangkok Fashions for the rest of my shirts (less than 1/2 the stitching price!)

In terms of the suit, I had provided the suit material and lining (don't be afraid of lining and buttons etc. you can buy these materials and good bemberg lining will set you back maybe 200 to 300 thb for a yard or so and would need about 2 yards for the suit jacket). The suit has slanted pockets, working cuff buttons, slim fit, slimmer than normal lapel and looks nice. I am happy with the suit. Although a minor annoyance was that the armholes on the jacket did not end up being as small and high as i had hoped. So there is the good and the bad for my tailoring experience.

i was going to try tailoronten but his stitching charges were even higher than Milan Suits stitching charges and I am not sure the end product (in this price range) could have been any different. So I am happy to have paid less than half of the stitching charges that he was asking for. Also as I had mentioned before, I took in my own fabric, lining and other materials. Its not that hard to find bemberg or paisley lining and the stitching charges for a mid level suit do not need to be over 4000 thb at best. (Narin, July and Art would be a whole different league). But I would imagine this review would cover the rest of us who are not looking at spending $700 or over on stitching charges in bangkok. If you need any other info or advice feel free to send a pm.

DWM

I just wanted to report my experiences here. I have just spent a week in Bangkok and decided to get a suit and shirts made. I decided to go to Tailor On Ten.
This was one hell of a good choice! Alex was welcoming, knowledgeable and interesting. He has a great range of fabrics. He offers loads of different wool fabrics and cotton fabrics. I was pleased to see a couple who had just finished up and had their suits and cothing ready to take home with them. I had a quick chat to them while Alex was on the phone (i.e not listening and they said they were extremely happy with it all and that they had decided to get him to do their wedding outfits!)
So feeling reassured I ordered a wool pinstriped suit, and 4 shirts. A few days later I came in for the first fitting, the shirts fit perfectly and we did the first fitting for my suit. The whole process was relaxed, smooth and enjoyable. Anyways, I have ended up with a suit I am very happy with and 4 shirts that look great. Overall I was really impressed. I loved that there were fixed prices (he didn't charge me extra 50b here and 100 baht there for certain things I wanted like monogramming and stuff). The other thing I liked was that he did not just say my suit looked great, there were some little details that I didn't notice but Alex did and he pointed them out and changed them. I have been to a few tailors in Bangkok and the usual way is to smooth out the jacket wrinkles and say "everything is perfect!"
Tailor On Ten's prices are really good. The quality is first rate and he is a pleasure to deal with. I recommend Tailor On Ten very highly.

dein_gesicht

After reading all the posts, I am a bit confused about which tailor I should use. I will get at least two suits and ten shirts. From what I have read, there is not much difference in the prices/quality of shirts. I'm really after the following for my suit:

- Good fabric: I'm not looking for a 8k thb suit, but rather am happy to spend 20-25k thb on the suit. Would prefer super 120s or 150s
- Timely: need to get it done within my 5-7 days in Bangkok (can visit the store most days if required)

Would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance

joorinainen

Tailoronten seems to have great variety of materials. I can vouch for Milan Suit. I liked the whole process and the clothes were great. I would recommend you to go as early as possible to the tailor when you arrive to BKK because it takes usually few fittings to get everything perfect!

becreative

At that price point I would suggest trying July Tailor. You could ask him for a fully floating canvas for the Jacket around that price point. http://www.julytailor.com/index.html

tailoronten

Hi dein_gesicht,
As far as shirts go, one of the most obvious differences in quality can be stiff collars and cuffs. This is usually the case when a cheaper interlining has been used. When you move the collar or cuff back and forth in your hands you will hear a "crackling" sound or noise. This is not a good thing. So that is something to look out for when you have some shirts made. As far as shirting fabric goes, most blended fabric in Bangkok tends to be 35% cotton/65% polyester which obviously dont wrinkle much but don't feel great either! There are some nice cottons to be had, there is a huge range of excellent classic shirting fabrics. Be careful of printed fabrics (often used as contrast fabrics) because the colours bleed/run.

As far as suits go you can find some nice Super 120's in Bangkok, but not so many 150's , though many of the selvages will say super 150's cashmere wool and so on this is not the case! Your budget will certainly allow for some really great quality suits.

If you are getting more than one suit made it is important that you do a few fittings on both suits. Not just the one as many tailors like to do. Although we try to make them the same, there are always subtle differences and so you should be sure to fit both.

5-7 days is enough time to get 2 suits made with lots of fittings, but not if you want a floating canvassed suit (no glue, just stitching). Whilst your budget allows it, it is a much more labour intensive technique and it takes time to do well. You can get two (glued) fused suits in this time no problem.

Do not overlook the lining on the inside of your jacket and pants. It is most common to use a polyester lining here, you want bemberg. All the other fancy linings available in Thailand such as the paisley's, stripes etc are polyester and will not breathe.
Hope this helps

Jasper2009

I recently visited Tailor on Ten and was very impressed with the overall experience.

Had two suits, some pants and a bunch of shirts done and am very happy with the results. Went with the mid-range quality fabrics which seemed like the best option for me (though some of the top quality materials looked really nice, but obviously are more expensive). I chose the 100% premium cotton shirts at 1700 Baht each which are really comfortable (IMO if you have some shirts tailored, it´s a waste of money spending it on a cotton/polyester fabric) and the super 100´s pure wool suit at 12k Baht each (the price includes one set of pants).

IIRC I had three fittings, I´d definitely recommend to have enough time to have several fittings as they like doing some small changes here and there which obviously contributes to a better overall result.

What distinguishes them from their competitors IMO is that Ben and Alex (the owners) originally come from Canada and not only speak English fluently, but are also familar with the "European/American style". The other two members of the team - Kevin and Paul - also did an excellent job and were very friendly.

The only minor inconvenience was that they only accept cash as payment, but they do accept CCs when you order more stuff through their website.

I was very happy with the experience overall and would definitely recommend them.

flo0816

After all the very positve reviews about tailor on ten I would like to add my two cents to the discussion. I have been to BKK a couple of times and had stuff made at Rajavongse and Narin. I was not 100% happy with what I got at Raja and I did not want to pay Narin's prices for a standard work suite I use to travel. So after reading so much about Alex and his team I decided to give them a try and have some suits and shirts made. I went for a Super 120 Italian and a Super 100 Chinese wool fabric on the suites and some shirt fabrics from their Premium and Luxury collection. The selection process was very easy and well structured. They give you this folder with all the options and you just choose what ever you want. They will help you with the selection and really try to get the best possible result for you without being pushy or trying to sell additional stuff. Not that there is a whole lot. Most things like working buttons on the suites are already included in the price. You do pay extra for the floating canvas option. On the shirts I wanted to get a copy of a custom shirt I brought which did not work out too well and they had to do a lot of changes. In total I had 6 fittings.

So far I am pretty happy with the fabrics I got. Both suite fabrics are nice but the Italian wool tends to wrinkle easily. The top line shirt cotton is very nice and comfortable to wear. The premium cotton is still a nice quality but a bit thin for my taste, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I just like my shirts to be a bit thicker quality. But that is just personal preference.

Unfortunately the quality of the tailoring is not quite what I expected for the price. On the floating canvas suite I got, the lapel always looks funny and twisted around the buttons because top and lining cloth have not been cut correctly. On the back of the collar about 2mm of the lining shows. The overall fit is fine but not as perfect as I would expect it from a custom suite.

The same goes for the shirts. If you really want a waisted fit and not just a slim fit you will most likely not be happy with what you get because they will cut the shirt straight and take it in at the back which only works if you have that perfect V shaped body. If you tend to be strong around the hips you will get a shirt that either does not close around the bottom button or one which is a bit too big around the waist. In both cases the shirt will bunch up over your pants. For some reason they cut the collar very high on my shirts which leads to the problem that the collar tipps do not touch the front of the shirt. Another problem is the collar in general. For some reason it seems to be unequal, which is difficult to tell without wearing a jacket. But wearing a jacket you can see that one shirt collar is covered by the suite lapel and the other one is not. Looking closely I also noticed that the button tab is not in the middle between the collar tips but the top button is a bit further to right, looking down on it. To be fair I have to add that some of this might have been due to the fact that I wanted to get a shirt copied and that did not work out for some reason. The shirt I brought in is a pretty well made custom shirt from a German tailor. So I don't know what went wrong but they never managed to get the fit the way it was in my shirt.

All this sounds worse than it probably is. I am very picky with my clothes, especially when it comes to my work clothes. Most people will probably not notice it in an everyday situation. It also took me some time looking at all the details and I only noticed it at home, having worn suites and shirts for a while. However my advice would be to go for the fused suite. The fit is better and in my case it looks much better than the floating canvas, which was an extra 4000 THB. The luxury shirt fabric is really nice and I am pretty happy with it. The fit is probably better than 90% of the shirts you buy somewhere at a departement store but 2200 THB is not necessarily cheap if the shirt does not fit 100% even though a big portion of the price is probably due to the price of the fabric. The mother of pearl buttons are a nice extra but no must have for me (as long as I don't get the thick cheap plasic buttons you will sometimes get).

Overall I have to say that they I am very happy with the quality of fabric I got. I will see my tailor here and try to get some of the things I mentioned above fixed. So from my point of view the same that goes for 99% of the tailors in BKK also goes for tailor on ten: Bring enough time for fittings an pay close attention to detail. If possible wear the suite for a day or two and if you notice anything, take it back and get it fixed.

Edited: I just spent another 150€ to get the 10 shirts fixed. So make sure they fit you 100%.

Merlin666

I am very intrigued by the idea of a tailored suit and shirts, so I am wondering how much time one would have to allocate for a fitting and the whole process. Also, would they ship to Canada? I will be there for only three days and was wondering if this could fit into a likely busy schedule.