Men's Tailored Shirts?

About a year ago I had a whole suit with shirt and tie made by EZ Collezioni. It was just perfect. He has the designs of modern Italian suits, young styles. It’s at Ximending. There’s another shop in Taipei but I’ve never been there.

EZ Collezioni
54-37, Sec. 2 Hankou street (at the Kunming street intersection)
02-23759993
http://www.ez.club.tw

Err…that would be me 17.5 neck and 33" sleeves. 42-44 short. I used to have a 12 inch drop from the shoulders. Now it is less. :s[/quote]

Don’t complain. I’ve got a 33" neck and 18" sleeves. Talk about trouble finding clothes off-the-rack. :frowning:

Looks like I should hit Korea or Thailand. If I can get a price comparable to the price I had in Daegu approximately 6 years ago, I’d be happy.

Actually, sizewise, the prices in the US, are great. I bought 10 wrinkle-free dress shirts neck-sized between 18 & 20 for about $6 each on 70% off clearance. That’s my wardrobe this year.

I can’t wear a tie without a 20" neck, although I can walk around in an 18 open-necked. 5 years ago in the US, I couldn’t buy an off the rack suit, but, now, I could buy a decent sport jacket for US$100 or $120. Actually, 2 of the jackets I have here, I bought at TJ Maxx size 2X for $40. Luckily, near the gate of my school, there’s a great tailor.

Other than the suits, I’d be better off having my sister keep an eye open for me and buy during the clearance sales. Next time I go back, I’ll pay her in advance . . .

Schwaiguy

Buying or getting shirts tailored is fine and all, but the problem I have found here is the cleaning of these same shirts.

Sense you sweat alot in this climate resulting in sweat stains (nice yellow ones), along with sweat on the cuffs and collar combined with black carbon from riding the bike or being exposed to exhausts from buses, it means that you have to deal with stains on those expensive shirts, and you may have to wash after wearing only one day

I used to get my shirts dry cleaned (very abrasive) until I noticed the shirts fading and the cuffs and collars getting worn down. Then I switched to washing by machine (not as abrasive) or by hand. But then I have to scrub the collars and cuffs to clean (again abrasive). In the end it may just come down to scrubbing to compensate for crap detergent and corrosive drying cleaning fluids

So the question to me is how to keep my not-so-expensive shirts from lasting longer while keeping them clean and presentable. Or what do you except as an acceptable life span for a shirt that you pay 2-3K for?

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]A couple of weeks ago I headed to the HK Marks & Sparks for a business shirt. The best they could do for me was a HK$500 shirt with me somehow in between sizes. I hit a tailor, any tailor, in HK who knocked me up three fine cotton business shirts for HK$300 a piece.

I’m currently in Bangkok and got another suit (two trousers), and three shirts for Bt9,000, which is around the same in Taiwan dollars. Final fitting today and it looked sharp, especially with the light tanned hand made leather shoes.

I’m totally hooked on this tailoring business. It’s generally cheaper, and you get what you want.

HG[/quote]

I’ve always been skeptical with the tailors in bangkok. Many of them look like they made the clothes for the TV shows Kojak or Quincy (same with some of the ones in Taiwan).
And thus I haven’t bothered.

I’ve been trying to get a good recommendation for a good tailor in Bangkok.
So, any chance you could post the address of this tailor?
I go to Bangkok every couple of months for a long weekend of R&R and will pay the tailors a visit…

What about the hand made shoes? Did you purchase those in Bangkok?
Where did you get them?

Cheers.

The tailor was Peter’s Clothier in the Ambassador Hotel Sukhumvit Soi 11, Sukhumvit Road. The shoes were also from the same Soi right on the corner with Sukhumvit Road. Chao Phraya Bootery,Sukhumvit 11 Sukhumvit Road, Tel : 662-253-5400.

Now you just have to believe that this is an area of Bangkok I really don’t frequent, by the way.

Cheers.
HG.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Now you just have to believe that this is an area of Bangkok I really don’t frequent, by the way.

Cheers.
HG.[/quote]

Will that belief be based on your username ? ? ?

I had a pair of suits made for 150 squid each in Seoul in 1989, in preparation for interviews for that proper job I never interviewed for when I got back to the UK. I’ve got one of them here, so if there’s anyone out there into a late 80s pinstriped suit, with the body of a skinny 23-year-old, boy, have I got the deal for you.

http://www.englishcut.com/. I was looking to get some clothes tailored recently, but didn’t want to turn up completely ignorant and gullible. I found the website of this Cumbria-based bespoke tailor useful:(Incidentally, he suggests a Marks & Spencers’ off-the-peg suit is good value for money if you don’t have 2000 squid to drop).

Get your favourite clothes copied. If you’re worried about the designs you could be landed with, try this. Take a pair of trousers/shirt etc that you already have and really like, and ask the tailor to make a copy. I’ve been happy with the results of this strategy.

I can’t particularly recommend the tailor I went to. It was sort of an accident that I went there. He did a good enough job, but my new clothes needed a good airing to get the fag smoke out of them.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]The tailor was Peter’s Clothier in the Ambassador Hotel Sukhumvit Soi 11, Sukhumvit Road. The shoes were also from the same Soi right on the corner with Sukhumvit Road. Chao Phraya Bootery,Sukhumvit 11 Sukhumvit Road, Tel : 662-253-5400.

Now you just have to believe that this is an area of Bangkok I really don’t frequent, by the way.

Cheers.
HG.[/quote]

Cheers for that.

I will check out this place in a few weeks.

What kind of price would I be looking at for the shoes?

Thanks.

A colleague said that the Shangri-la Tailors on the 3rd floor building next to the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel Taipei does good shirts at a very reasonable price.

Baht2,000, around the same in NT dollars.

Yellow Cartman, what about these shirts, what does competitive mean?

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
Yellow Cartman, what about these shirts, what does competitive mean?
HG[/quote]

~ 800-1000 NTD for their “regular” tailored shirts. I might stop by and check it out just to see.

[quote=“Mother Theresa”][quote=“Lord Lucan”]I don’t see the point of tailored shirts unless you need them because you have an 18" neck and 33" sleeves or something.

A tailored shirt will be about twice the price of an equivalent quality off the peg shirt. A hundred US is a good guide for off the peg, so a good bespoke shirt should be around 100 quid.[/quote]

LL, you clearly set the sartorial standard around here. I mean that sincerely.

But I disagree with the above. True, if one pays more one can get very nice clothing that looks superior and may last longer. But I like tailored clothing because it fits just right, I pick just the right fabric I want and it can be cheaper than comparable off-the-rack clothing. I just went to my tailor over the weekend and ordered a shirt for NT$900 and dress slacks for NT$2300. I admit they may not be up to your standard, but they’ll look very nice: not just better than any local cell-phone salesman’s garb, but perfectly suitable for high-level, international, corporate business and, to the eye of almost all observers except you and a few London bankers, virtually indistinguishable from what you’re wearing.[/quote]

You’re probably right. And I don’t really set the standard of course, I just have a few decent shirts. But it’s all a facade: The City Banker. Jermyn Street shirt, woven silk tie, chunky cufflinks, school shoes, black socks, pinstripe or chalkstripe suit, and Bob’s your uncle.

But I have seen a lot of the so-called “tailored” stuff made in Shanghai, and it is, I am afraid, crap. Sorry. Someone please prove me wrong. The collars are crap. The material is badly stitched. The shirts are just cheap looking. Basically it’s all about ripping off the stupid foreigners. And tailoring is no exception. Badly cut, badly measured, shit material, floppy cuff and collars that you have to starch. Have seen good stuff out of HK and BKK, but not actually worn it, or tried to iron it. Of course if you allow a laundry to clean and/or iron your clothes then it doesn’t matter what they were like to start off with and perhaps that’s what’s wrong with these shirts I see that look like they were stolen from the Elephant Man. There are a couple of places here that might do good stuff, but the suit’s a thousand US for starters and haven’t priced the shirts.

As for suits, there is no need IMHO to go for madly expensive fabrics. A nice light wool in dark blue would suit me. My two favourite suits are made of a fabric approaching sackcloth in texture that they no longer make because there’s no-one else left in the world hairy enough to bear it near their skin except Almas John and he doesn’t wear suits. Of course I have to wear one of those throwaway shiny European suits for the summer and it has all the rigidity and shape of a floosie’s silk nightie. Also, given that I sweat like a ********* on Sport’s Day over here in the summer, the suits have to be cleaned every five minutes and dissolve after a couple of years anyway. For my next suit I’m getting a cheapo tailored suit. The material may wear out in a year, but no more baggy, er, bags, and orangutan sleeves.

I would get my casual clothes tailored too at the prices you quote, and clothes that fit will always look better than some Armani crap made in the backstreets of Milan on machines by Turkish immigrants unless you are Armani-man-sized. I can’t buy trousers over here in Shanghai, except from the re-importers. So it’s cheaper to get them sent over.

I’m going to give it another year of buying imported shirts and see what’s on offer next time I’m in HKG or BKK with someone who knows.

TNT: I have two shirts that are more that 10 years old. No visible wear at all. One simple wore through the arm the other week and is now dead. That one was 200s (I think) cotton so very thin to begin with.

I washed them for years in those shirt mangling cold-water 1940s washing machines they have in Taiwan. Now I have a proper washing machine which gently tumbles them in a very small amount (saving the planet you see) of warm water, but the shirts do not get clean around the collars and armpits sometimes. I am afraid the only option I can think of is pre-cleaning them with special soap. Basically like an old washer-woman. I wash and iron them myself, although I am training the wife in this regard. We are now in the tenth year of training and she still claims to not know how to do it (I claim to not know how to not make a mess of the kitchen when I cook or the Chinese for “I’ve got a headache” and life proceeds along in a jolly fashion on this basis). Do not allow a Chinese laundry to iron your double-cuff shirts or they will iron the cuffs into equal quadrants like a hot-cross-bun and you will be a source of amusement and a target for derision. People will stop talking as you enter the room and, later on, look furtively in your direction with big sad eyes, and nod knowingly to one another. If you haven’t got time to do your own ironing just get single cuffs. They will still iron a big crease into the cuff about where your thumb is but at least you will not look like a complete buffoon.

I have tried expensive imported washing powder (I am in China don’t forget where soap and the whole idea of washing anything are novelties) but it is no better for removing dirt. It does smell nice though. As I permanently smell of the pub this is not important to me. I do now wear a V-neck T-shirt in China during the summer to protect my shirts (and will continue to do so until aircon regains universal acceptance in Shanghai and when a man can hold his head up high in the Municipal Council and say “we shall turn on the air conditioning and to hell with the consequences!”). It is very effective. No more scary drenched foreigner in light blue shirt syndrome. You have to walk a lot in Shanghai too as there ain’t no taxis for no foreigners tonite*. Huge effect on sartorial planning. I met the British Ambassador earlier this year after walking for 20 minutes in 37 degrees and 100% humidity. Had I not had my trusty Giordano V-neck on underneath my blue shirt he may have simply brushed me off with an “Oh my God who let this blubbering sack of sweaty putrid filth into my breakfast briefing?” instead of the full “Hellow awfully spiffing to meet you and all that. Wot.” Which would have spelt social exorcism and looks of horror from the other chauffeur-driven non-going-outside-in-the-summer attendees.

I would expect a shirt costing fifty quid and well looked after to last five to eight years looking pristine, and up to ten wearable and without any fraying. I expect my shirts to last about three years in Shanghai because of the toxic washing powder and general filthiness (tapwater is green, air is grey with black particles). Suits about the same. Acceptable under the circumstances and probably longer than I’ll last if I stay in this godawful town.

*spot the reference and win a tin of warm REEB.

Today I went with a friend to the Takashimaya in Tianmu. They have a tailor there who seems very professional and knowledgeable. He’s certainly careful about taking all relevant measurements, and discussing with you the amount of room you need to move and feel comfortable.

You can choose your fabric from a very wide range, you can choose to have your shirt fitted or non-fitted (and the extent to which you want it fitted), you can choose your collar and cuff style, you can have your shirts monogrammed, and you can choose the style of your back pleats (or leave the back unpleated). Other little personal touches (such as one fabric for the shirt body/sleeves and another fabric for the collar/cuffs), are also available, you only have to ask. None of these ‘extras’ incur any additional charge.

There’s currently a summer special on (three shirts for NT$2,700). I ordered six, and they will take two weeks to be ready. Given that the shirts are very cheap I am not expecting anything of the standard to which Lord Lucan is accustomed, nor the standard of the tailored shirts I had made in Melbourne while I was there, but I am expecting that they’ll fit well and be wearable for a reasonable amount of time.

It’s certainly a better deal than the three cotton business shirts I bought from Muji for a total of NT$4,500. I’ll report back when I have tried them out.

Do those include a wide range of casual prints, tropical, batik etc., or just more conservative stuff?

Not that I have seen. The range covers the typical ‘English’ classics (various whites, bones, creams, offwhites, white and blue cambrics, as well as stripes, plaids, etc), but nothing as exotic as you mention.

[quote=“Ectoplasma”]About a year ago I had a whole suit with shirt and tie made by EZ Collezioni. It was just perfect. He has the designs of modern Italian suits, young styles. It’s at Ximending. There’s another shop in Taipei but I’ve never been there.

EZ Collezioni
54-37, Sec. 2 Hankou street (at the Kunming street intersection)
02-23759993
http://www.ez.club.tw[/quote]

ez.club.tw/Con_Guang_Fu.asp

Get off the MRT at Sun Yat Sen Memorial hall station, EZ Collezioni is on Guang Fu S Rd, head North past the United Hotel. EZ on the last block before the crossing with the East West Expressway.

I got some shirts made there and IIRC they were only about £10 each. They’re excellent. I actually brought along the shirt I liked best and they took about 10 sets of measurements and cloned it!

KZ, that looks like a very promising establishment. Thanks. I’ll look them up next month when I’m deciding on a new suit or two.

I’m having my wedding tux made at the same place. Good first impression. Let you know what I think of the quality when I pick it up Friday.

I tried EZ on Guangfu and was not happy. Sleeves too short, chest too tight, I can’t even wear the 3 shirts that I bought there.