Is Kunming a good place to have a suit made to order? Anyone done this? I know in some places like Hong Kong and even Kathmandu you can get very good work done for a great price - as long as you pick the right tailor.
Adding to this. Anyone know any tailors who will use denim? The few I've asked won't make jeans for some reason.
Sewing seams in denim requires a different heavy duty sewing machine and needles. It also requires a different thread that they would otherwise not use.
There are very few people who do this, and you would have to search them out.
Hi Andrew,
In my personal experience, I had to make a custom tailor suit (ever notice China men's shoulders are so tiny!) for my china wedding a few months back, and my wife being local, scouted and asked ALL of her friends abt good tailors here.
The sad answer is, no. there isn't any good ones here. their prices aren't worth the quality you get back in return. (as a proverb in Chinese 一分钱一分货 = you get what you pay for)
My humble advice, should you wish to accept it, is to go to HK and make a suit, which is much better. a RMB 2500 suit made there is way more better than a RMB 2500 suit here. Or if HK is too far, Chengdu also has good tailors. My wife's friend's husband made his suit there, albeit slightly a bit more expensive than HK, but also good. He made his at a street of tailors near the UK visa centre. If you want, I can get the name of the street and tailor's name/contact details.
Or, you can make a holiday and fly to Bangkok and make it there as well! :)
Short answer, sorry, no.
Hoi An, Vietnam.
Thanks Bhavesh, it's great to be able to take advantage of someone's personal experiences for stuff like this. I could have wasted a lot of time on it. Perhaps I'll be able to get one elsewhere - HK, Thailand, Vietnam (as Alex suggests - thanks).
From what I've heard Thailand is a great place for cheap, well made/tailored suits. Once I get over there I'll probably be making a trip down there myself at some point for one (and a vacation, of course).
Wait! You *can* get a good suit in Kunming. I got a great suit—my wedding suit, in fact—done a couple years back at a tailor on 螺蜂街 for Y1200. It was a well-made suit, and he was open to any specification you wanted to give him. A year later he made me a marvelous 中山服 coat for about Y800. It's on the left side going south from the 圆通街 intersection, maybe 2-300m south of Yuantong Street.
or it might have been on 华山西路
I also had my wedding suit made here. The shop I went to is on Renmin Donglu opposite the Yanan Hospital. It was Y1200 and made to my specifications. Basically, the price depends on the type of material you choose.
