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Q and Answer: Should I Get A Suit in Hong Kong? Bangkok?

Jake writes: My wife and I are looking to take a trip to Asia in the new few months and I was wondering about your opinion of the custom tailoring outfits available there to get some suits made (specifically we are looking at Hong Kong and/or Bangkok).  I’m sure there are very fine tailors there that take a long time, but I’ve been told that there are places where you can get a pretty quick turnaround (necessary considering that we’d be abroad for ~2 weeks).  I’m worried that something made so quickly will be of poor construction.  Even if the suit were mostly fused, would there still be a value to getting something cut to my dimensions?

I get this question a lot, Jake. The promise of a $250 custom suit is powerful siren song. But will you be happy with what you buy?

The bad news is that if you buy a suit for a couple hundred dollars from a tout in Bangkok or Hong Kong, you’ll likely be disappointed. The good news is that buying a high-quality suit is possible, for a reasonable price, with a quick turnaround.

There are two challenges: the first is quality, the second aesthetics. Without knowing the terrain very well, you run a high risk of erring in one of those two areas. You can find a tailor who does good work, but who lacks a sophisticated understanding of your (presumably Western) aesthetics. You can also find someone who simply doesn’t make a good suit. It is, however, possible to address those problems and come out on top… but it’ll probably cost you more than the $300 you might be imagining.

First, time: by all accounts, you’ll need at least a week or so. If you do have that bit of time, though, most Hong Kong tailors are used to making clothes for visitors with limited timelines. Make sure to go for your first fitting at the start of your trip, and make sure the tailor can schedule two fittings before you leave. Generally the tailor will do the fittings, make adjustments, and mail you the final product.

Using a good tailor will cost you more than a couple hundred dollars, though. In Hong Kong, expect to pay somewhere between $800 and $1500 for a well-made suit. That’s half what you might pay in the States, but it isn’t $300. Do a lot of research, and you might find a passable suit for a few hundred dollars, but I’d really only recommend this to folks who both don’t have the money for better quality and need custom clothing because they can’t wear off-the-rack.

When you choose a tailor in an unfamiliar, choose carefully. I’ve never been to Hong Kong myself, but many users on StyleForum and other clothing fora recommend Gordon Yao, Lee Baron and WW Chan. Ascot Chang is a legendary Hong Kong shirtmaker; on the budget side, many enthusiasts like Jantzen for cheaper shirts. You can check out this exhaustive thread for more information.

Outside of Hong Kong, it can be tougher to find quality makers of tailored clothes. Some of the Hong Kong tailors have branches in the mainland, but places like Thailand and Vietnam have a much smaller tradition of quality tailoring. Some places, like South Korea and Singapore, do have a broad tradition, but you can run into the aforementioned aesthetic issues. It can also be tough just to find decent fabric, especially in the second and third world, and if you yourself aren’t comfortable judging textiles you can easily be sold a bill of goods.

That said, shirts are a much simpler proposition than coats, and you can find decent quality shirt makers in places like Bangkok (or in Vietnam, or India…). My one visit to Bangkok lasted all of 10 hours, so I’ll refer you to these forum threads on Bangkok tailors for information there. Again, you’ll have to be vigilant about fabric and fit, but once that’s settled, you may be able to order shirts based on your pattern for years to come.

(Photo by JMR Photography)

Un-Lining A Jacket

A week or so ago, I picked up this jacket at a thrift store. It didn’t need too much adjustment to fit well, and it filled a hole in my wardrobe - a linen blazer. Since I live in Los Angeles, staying comfortable in the summer is a priority, and linen does the trick.

There was only one problem: the jacket was fully lined. Linen is cool and breathes well. The same cannot be said of the materials used to line coats, like bemberg, an early plant-based synthetic. Lining fabrics are designed to be slick and lightweight, but they’re not designed to be cool in warm weather. Lined linen is fine when the temperature’s 75 or 80, but I wanted a coat I could wear when it was 85 or 90, so I took the coat to my tailor for some alteration.

The lining in the shoulders and sleeves is functional. Without lining there, your coat can hang up on your shirt, causing rumpling, bumps and other unsightly malformations. It’s also functional in the chest, where it performs the same duties, and also covers up the structure of the chestpiece and pockets. There are totally unstructured coats that have almost none of this extra stuff in the chest, but this wasn’t one of them, so I wanted to retain that lining.

The one place where the lining isn’t functional at all is on the back. Manufacturers use lining there for a uniform look, and because it’s cheaper to line the back fully than to clean up the insides to look presentable. Luckily, I’d bought the coat for $25, and wasn’t averse to putting a bit more money into it to make it summer-friendly.

I had my tailor remove the lining along most of the back. This involved cutting away the lining, but also “taping” the now-visible seams. This keeps them from catching on the shirt and makes them look finished. He left a strap across the lower back to help the coat retain its shape, but that’s optional. The result was a coat with dramatically less lining that will keep me much cooler in the summer.

This isn’t just a great option for summer, either. Less lining in a jacket means you can wear heavier fabrics in warmer temperatures. Heavier fabrics almost always look and drape better than lighter, finer ones. Unless it’s winter and you’re trying to maximize warmth, a less-lined coat is more versatile and comfortable. That’s why jackets were rarely fully lined until mass manufacturing prevailed over traditional tailoring in the 60s.

My tailor charged me a bargain price for the service - $35. Since it’s not a frequent request, prices vary, but generally cutting out the back and taping the seams will run you somewhere around $50. When the mercury climbs here in LA, I’m sure I’ll be glad I spent the money.

Boys Becoming Men, Men Becoming Wolves, Pants Becoming Shorts

If you’re having a hard time finding just the right shorts for this summer’s hottest days, remember: shorts are generally just pants with shorter legs. You can transform pants into shorts pretty simply, for about ten bucks.

1. First, pick the pants. You can use pants that aren’t the right length or have a stain below the knee for maximum efficiency, or you can just pick something that fits right around the waist and thigh but isn’t available in shorts form.
2. Then, cut them off (regular scissors are fine) two inches or so below thelowest point you think you might want them “shortsified.” At the bottom of your knee should work.
3. With pins (safety or straight), pin them to the inseam length you like by folding the excess fabric under. We made the first cut and use pins so that it’s easy to play around and see what looks best.
4. Once you’ve got them pinned, take them to your tailor or alterationist, and ask him to hem them at that point. A plain hem should cost you about ten or twelve bucks. If you prefer a cuff - which is a trendy on shorts that are a bit less casual - that’ll cost a bit more, and you should make sure to have a couple extra inches of fabric. For a cuff, you’ll need a little more than double the length of the cuff (like 5” for a 2” cuff.)

Suddenly, as if by magic, your pants have become shorts.

(Illustration via StyleGirlfriend - who advocates shorter shorts if you’ve got the legs.)

A Word of Warning About Online Made-to-Measure

I get a lot of questions about online made-to-measure services. There’s been a proliferation of these outfits in the past few years, as (mostly Chinese) production has modernized and sped up to allow for factory one-offs, and the internet has allowed consumers to connect with makers.

These companies offer a compelling proposition: a custom suit for less than the price of an off-the-rack suit at Macy’s or The Men’s Wearhouse.

The reality is much more fraught. The value of custom clothing comes largely from the fitting expertise of an experienced tailor… and even an experienced tailor often requires two or three shirts or coats to get a pattern exactly right. A novice at home with a tape measure simply can’t replicate that skill.

The result, frankly, is ill-fitting clothing. There’s a thread of photographs of suits by Indochino, one of the leading purveyors of this type of service, at StyleForum. I’d say half to 3/4 of the suits fit poorly. Not just less-than-ideally, but poorly. Indochino pays for some alterations, but that’s no panacea.

The reality is that with online made-to-measure you should expect to go through a number of iterations - at least two, maybe three or four or five - before you get your pattern correct. Even yet, not every service is consistent in their production, so getting your measurements right still isn’t a guarantee.

It’s possible to get this right. I know my colleague Derek has had some good success with some shirtmakers, for example, and he’s not alone. Shirts are also relatively inexpensive, which makes errors less painful. Still, the advantages (cost, lack of geographic limitations) don’t necessarily outweigh the benefits.

If off-the-rack clothing altered by a local tailor fits you well, or if you have the access and budget to use a quality in-person service, there’s no compelling reason to use go online. The benefits are unlikely to outweigh the disadvantages. Frankly, 90% of American men are well-served by off-the-rack clothing.

If you can’t wear off-the-rack clothing, or find it very difficult to find, the pain may be worth the reward. If you’re 6’3”/150, or 5’1”, or if you’re a weightlifter or a serious swimmer with a very athletic figure, there’s tremendous benefit to online custom. If you don’t have the money for in-person, it may still be worth a couple failures to get to the point where you’re getting a product that fits at a reasonable price.

Similarly, for something like shirts, where the cost of failure is low, you can make a few mistakes before sorting out your exact preferences. In that case, you can benefit… especially if off-the-rack doesn’t fit.

Whether you fall into those categories, of course, is a question only you can answer.