There are custom tailor shops everywhere in Hong Kong. In Shanghai, we couldn't walk 5 steps without a hawker asking us if we wanted nice Rolex, Gucci bag, DVD's. Here, it's shills for the tailor shops asking Jon if he wants a nice custom made suit, shirt, trousers. (Apparently they are instructed to ask only non-Asian men.) And all the shills are Indian (subcontinental, that is); apparently, the shops are all run by Indians, but the tailors are all Chinese.
The other day Jon finally broke down and decided to go for it. After all, when in Rome, right? He'd been given some recommendations, but they seemed very expensive, and he didn't want a store that was fronted by shills. So we walked through some shopping centers (which are myriad) till he found one he liked. It was very small, filled floor to ceiling with bolts of cloth.
He described what he wanted, went through books of swatches, looked through bolts of cloth. The owner took a dozen different measurements for the suits, then more for the shirts. He told us to come back only 5 hours later for the first fitting.
We came back and Jon tried on pieces of a suit -- one arm (only pinned on), the lapels tacked on, pants with no waistband, etc. It was a hoot. They told us to come back the next day for the final fitting.
We came back and the suits were done -- 52 hours start to finish! And absolutely gorgeous. Silk lining, Jon's name embroidered inside. Jon wanted another 1/8 inch in the neck of the shirts, so those will be ready this morning.
Jon ended up getting 2 suits, one a cashmere/wool blend, the other a silk/wool blend, plus 6 all-cotton dress shirts with monograms on the cuffs. Anyone want to guess what he paid?
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