Custom made clothes from photos
 

Does anyone know of a good tailor in Beijing who can look at a photo & make a dress for me? I am only there for a few days so they need to be fast as well! Also, where do I buy fabric from? I assume the silk market is named due to the availablitiy of silk fabric? Is it cheap?

Much of the fabric in the "silk market" is very cheap and not all of it is silk. Buy only if you know what you are buying.

Worldwide, the best predictor of satisfactory custom-clothing is the number of fittings. In a few days, asking for a dress from a photo, your expectations should be quite low. Decide whether you want to risk it based on the price quoted.

Beijing is really not the place to be trying this, and speed always equals low quality. Go to Hong Kong if you want decent tailoring. If you really must get something made you might try expat-targeting tailors in the 'Ya Show' market (Yaxiu) or the 3.3 building in Sanlitun. But reports on these are very mixed, and prices are expatty. Don't expect to be particularly happy with the results.

The silk market (actually called 'Silk Street') is a tourist trap with very little silk and overall a place you should avoid. Try the Beijing Silk Store in Zhubao Jie which runs down the west side of Qian Men Dajie between Qian Men and Dazhalan Jie. Or just inside Dazhalan the Ruifuxiang store (also in Wangfujing).

Peter N-H

Both Beijing Silk and Ruifuxiang require more than a few days--I was told it would take a week to copy a silk jacket, using their fabric. Also, their prices were quite high. There are other shops in that area that looked decent to me but do not expect huge bargains.

I did have a silk jacket made, copied from a garment in a shop. I have the information and the price paid in my trip report. But I was there in 2007, so keep that in mind.

The whole point of paying for custom tailoring is to have it fit perfectly. As Kathie said, this involves going back several times to adjust it. If you don't have the time to do this- especially if they will be making a pattern based on a photo, vs copying a piece of clothing- don't do it!

I agree completely. I would never expect great, or even very good, tailoring from a place unknown to me that was relying on a photo. Recipe for disappointment if you ask me.

This caught my eye only because I have custom tailoring of suits made in Bangkok. For quality work my tailor requires 3 and somes 4 fittings over 3 days. It sometimes becomes such a chore that you focus on getting to and from the tailor and not the sights or your business. Therefore when I go as I did last year I had him make me 3 suits, 2 sport jackets and 4 pair of slacks. and it was 4 fittings. For one outfit I would not have gone through all of that. The total time I devoted including travel was probably 6 hours or more.

Thanks for all the good advice. I am there for a week, but tied up for 2-3 days with work, so probably don't have the time for all the required fittings, & as pointed out, getting something made is not the focus of the trip - I'm already wondering how I'm going to fit it all in!