Office Attire? To bring or to buy?

No doubt some variation of this has been asked before, but in relation to work wear specifically with office shirts/ sweaters etc, is it better to bring or to buy? My current wardrobe isn’t exactly of expensive taste but as I am moving up the ranks in my office, I wanted to also ask what people usually wear? I work in a traditional engineering office - sometimes meeting clients, sometimes on site. In Asia is it normal to wear a suit to work? In London we’d wear more smart casual than formal wear. The other individuals in the office have stated it leans more on the formal side.

Any recommendations for shirts/tailoring in Taipei?

Thanks!

You can get tailored shirts for about 1000-1500nt in Taiwan.

I recommend you get some tailored in Taiwan; they’ll take like 1 week, it’s fast here.

For pants, I honestly think uniqlo chinos are fantastic and comfortable. I wear them often with my dress shirts for smart casual.

For shirts, I go to James Lee Tailor in Taipei. He’s about medium budget for Taiwan.

These guys are supposed to be the best, they’re actually next to James Lee.

But you’re looking at London Prices.

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If you’re in London, I recommend you go to my tailor at Edit Suits. They’re made to measure, the best I’ve come to not going full bespoke. They’re actually better than some of the bespoke I’ve had at a better price. About 1 month turnaround time.

If you want, I can give you my code to get 60 pounds towards a dress shirt discounted.

I would get a few shirts and chinos.

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suits are not necessary unless meeting with clients. smart casual will usually be enough。

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Got my suit made at Grand Tailor for my wedding. Cost around 35k NTD for jacket, pants, and vest. They were able to rush it and have it done within 1.5 months if I remember correctly.

Didn’t get any shirts made there as they are expensive. I went to Sheep Tailor for those. Cost was about 1k NTD each. Very nice quality as well and if you are really in a rush they can have them finished in 3 days.

These prices will definitely change based on the materials you choose though.

Really? Was it just the basic house fabric? Everything I looked at cost more then double that.

This was about 3 years ago. It was my first, and only, suit. Wasn’t sure if I would ever really wear it again, but I wanted a nicer one in case I ever did. I think the fabric came from either the cheapest fabric book they had or the second cheapest. Even being cheap it is still a very nice suit and well fitted.

Fit is always more important than fabric. I heard they do a pretty good job with tailoring. And even most house fabrics are nice by any standards at a high end place.

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Don’t know your size, but Western sizes even for regular sizes, especially shoes, can be hard to locate. And lots of clothes are cut to Asian body types.

Tailored suit prices in Taiwan are not especially great, styles are a bit dated even if you specify a certain style, and turn around time is not great. Compared to other countries I’ve experienced like Thailand and Singapore. I’ve tried at least 5 tailors for both shirts and suits in Taiwan and not happy with any of them.

If you determine that you don’t need suits, or even if you do, I would show up at least partially prepared.

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I can’t speak to engineering companies, but in general Taiwan is more casual than Japan or Korea or even China: at my cram school in Korea a couple of decades ago, we were required to wear a tie; I now teach at a university and I almost never see ties, and if someone’s in a suit, you can be 95% sure it’s because they’re speaking at a conference with dignitaries. I seldom notice suits on the MRT, although presumably many of those who wear suits are in cars instead.

One thing to keep in mind is your size. If you need much tailoring with clothes (e.g. leg length or whatever), there’s going to be a language barrier here, and that’s going to make shopping for clothes a bit more of a pain. As others have mentioned, some sizes are harder to find here.

Taipei weather: for me, Taipei is never cold enough to wear a sweater. But opinions do vary on that.

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Thanks for the replies all! Very helpful :grin:

Holy smokes, that’s on par with Vietnam tailoring.

Will check out James Lee as I’m always changing between small/mediums here in the UK (blame my love of all things sweet).

That would be great thanks- in London for a few days so will check them out, see what their turnaround time could be.

Got ya, so one should be okay for now as suits aren’t a daily driver.

Oh really? Damn, that’s a little disappointing to here. Guess I’ll come prepared anyway just in case and then sample a few places, see if they’ve improved.

Damn, shouldn’t have eaten so much crap over qt. I have a lil belly :slight_smile:

Use my code

andr3148

Book an appointment with them. I recommend a few pairs of chinos and shirts for smart causal. They will do a better job than most Taiwanese tailors, idk why but they really struggle with pants. At least for me because they aren’t used to my body type.

Great fabric selection and really knowledgeable people.

I don’t have £5000 for a bespoke suit right now unfortunately. One day though.

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Wear suits for meetings

Most days not necessary. It’s also hot and sweaty most of the year

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Would that be for internal meetings as well, or just meetings with people outside the company? (Asking as someone who continues to be mildly surprised that my business-decidedly-casual is more formal than many of my university coworkers.)

I used to end up getting tailored suits on trips to Hong Kong, even though I only wore them for important meetings or events. Climate in Taiwan really wasn’t suit friendly for most of the year.

Taiwan needs to invent more weather appropriate formal attire. Formal attire is meant for places where summer temperature doesn’t exceed 25 during the day (like Europe).

Linen is ok, although it will get wrinkles pretty quickly.

On my last two jobs it was suits and ties. These days it’s trainers and jeans. One of the R&D guys used to come in wearing track suit bottoms and sandles. He did wear a wrinkled up long sleeve shirt to finish off the look.

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