Hello,
I recently moved to HK with my family and am interested in buying made-to-measure dress shirts. There seems to be a huge number of local tailors, however, and I am also concerned about quality (recently I walked through Kowloon and was literally bombarded with offers from tailors working various street corners).
Does anyone have advice here? Have you worked with a tailor for shirts who you can recommend?
Any help would be much appreciated!
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I get my tailoring done at Tai Pan Row, which is on the third floor of the IFC building where the airport express is, it costs more than the average tailor, you are probably paying a premium for the location, but they do an exceptional job, the service is always good and most of my desk at the bank I work in get them done there and it wouldn't surprise me if the whole trading floor get their suits and shirts made by them as well given the convenience.
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Ed
17 yrs ago
Try Ascott Chang - top quality http://ascotchang.com/
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Thanks for the suggestions. Tai Pan Row appears to offer better prices, eg 3 for HK $1200 (HK $400 each) compared to around HK $700-1500 each at Ascot Chang.
Given the price difference, I would imagine AC should offer better quality?
Has anyone purchased shirts from both shops?
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Tai Pan row, prices differently for shirts depending on quality of material you are using, if you checked their website, and only one price is being quoted they are probably showing you the specials (though equally, that could be a special offer for their best material, I don't know. You should check with them). Most people go there to get their suits made, and they are always trying to get you to buy shirts while you are at it by offering deals.
I have never used Ascott Chang so I cannot comment, one thing I can tell you about tailors is everybody loves the one they are using, which is why they use them. I would really recommend going to both shops and speaking with the sales people, and finding out which one helps you the most and you feel most comfortable with. Personally, I am really picky with my suits, and I went in three times to Tai Pan Row before I bought, and my guy never complained that I was wasting his time and gave me great service and his English is great.
I had a friend who was really sophisticated, he would get his suits made at one place and his shirts at another because he felt they were specialists at each. I cannot remember his shirts tailor though, and the guy has left Hong Kong and doesn't communicate with anyone cause he has a US$800,000 tax bill which he never paid
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Yeah it would not surprise me that the IFC shop prices more expensively, that shop must cost a bomb, most tailors are tiny cupboards in non descript buildings and yet they all seem to charge the same price. I can tell you that for a standard suit, if you are not worried about material or brand name, TPR is competitive with them (though some tailors do take the pi*s on price especially in TST, but I wouldn't trust them and I am certain the material is terrible), its when you start spending more like on Cerruti or Zenga material, that I found they were more expensive then competitors, so in essence you are paying a premium for the convenience of the IFC location, and the fact you are in a nicer shop.
Good luck anyway, I am sure you will be happy with the result.
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LadyK
17 yrs ago
Hi all
Do the men's suits at TPRow come with 2 trousers normally? We were charged HKD2,000 for a 2nd pair of trousers last week which sounds very steep indeed. This brought the total cost of the 130s italian fabric suit to over HKD8,000. It's the first time we are using TPR. I hope we did not get ripped off.
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No you didnt get ripped off, at least I don't think you did. TPR suits come only with a single pair of trousers, to be honest if you bought a non branded super 130's fabric suit, 6g's sound about right. I pay HK$7,500 for Cerruti super 120's, so maybe I am being ripped off. So you are getting better quality fabric for a cheaper price than I am. ( I really do hope its non branded). It is normal to pay 30% of the total cost of the suit for an extra pair of trousers if you are using high quality fabric. You could probably negotiate a little. Some tailors will provide the second pair of trousers as part of the deal, but I cant imagine the fabric being very good.
Besides, if you think of it this way, you are dropping US$1,000 for a tailor made suit of very high quality fabric. If you were to buy the same thing in the US or London, you would be dropping at least double if not triple depending on who your tailor was.
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This second pair of trousers question is interesting. An additional 30% or so may be standard, but this "feels" expensive as the incremental cost of the second pair to the tailor is probably much lower than 30% of the suit price (cost of fabric notwithstanding); as a result, i would imagine that tailors should be willing to negotiate on this price.
So this begs the question, Has anyone actually had success negotiating a discount for a second pair of trousers at TPR?
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Oh and if your suit is branded, then you are indeed getting a very good deal compared to what I and my colleagues are getting.
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I don't think it sounds expensive, there is extra work involved for the tailor, he is doing the same amount of work on the second pair as he did for the first pair, and of course the cost of the material. If you think about it a pair of trousers making up 30% of the total cost of a suit sounds about right. Can you negotiate, of course you can, you can always negotiate anything with a tailor, particularly in Hong Kong where it is so competitive, it just depends on how good you are at doing the negotiation. Should you get a discount based on volume, probably a little, but there are guys that go into TPR that buy 4-6 suits at a time, I've seen the receipts when I was negotiating my price and thats when you start seeing meaningful discounts, you wont see a huge discount for an extra pair of trousers.
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LadyK
17 yrs ago
The suit we got is non branded. Like you said it's all down to how well one can negotiate but doubt that TPR would have budged much on the price as they do pride themselves with their well made suits plus they have been around for yonks. What is important is we get a well made suit and good after sales service I guess. Great to receive your feedback. Thanks a lot.
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Check out www.tailoredshirts.com The quality of the fabrics etc is great and pricing is ok also.
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