A woman friend of mine will be in Hong Kong next month and is looking to have a pants suit made in Kowloon. Can anyone suggest a reliable place to have this done?

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I think rizzuto is referring to http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-hong-kong.cfm. Many of those tailors are my suggestions. IMO the best woman’s tailor is Margaret Court, but she is not on the Kowloon side. She also most likely would not be able to turn around a suit in a few days (she generally takes 2-3 weeks, with at least 2 fittings). She also is not cheap; a good woman’s suit at a major department store in Sydney would probably cost the same or less as one made by Margaret, esp if your friend wants it in just a few days. But you are getting good quality fabrics and a custom fit.

Perhaps some of the other tailors in the post can complete a suit in a few days; however in my experience the mainly men’s tailors on the Kowloon side tend to not do women’s tailoring as well, suits are on the boxy side, unless she has a suit to copy from where they may be able to get the fit better.

Margaret Court Tailoress
Flat G, 8th Floor
Block A Winner Building
27-37 D'Aguilar Street
Central Hong Kong
tel: 852-2525-5596
fax: 852-2537-0898
http://www.margaret-court.com.hk/
e-mail: [email protected]

Closed on Sundays.

I've had beautiful tailoring done by Maxwell's (see the link above). Allow a week, and plan on at least two or three fittings.

Is Margaret Court perhaps out of business - -that link doesn't work.

Actually, the link to Maxwell's isn't working either, so I wonder if there's just a problem with Hong Kong internet?

The link to Maxwell's is working now:
www.maxwellsclothiers.com

Thank you all for those suggestions. She will be in Hong Kong for 2 weeks and I have advised her to make it her first job.I will tell her to bring one of her own to perhaps help with the time factor.

Brining along something to copy does make it much easier. Do forewarn her that tailoring in Hong Kong is expensive. It's not like Bangkok where you can have something made for less than you'd pay off the rack. But the workmanship is beautiful, and you have something custom-made for you.

Kathie, is the workmanship or fabric ,<i>better</i> or <i>equal to</i> what you would get off the rack at home for the same price? I don't really care about "custom" -- if it's the same price for the same product, I'll just shop at home!!

It will be more expensive than very good off the rack clothing. The workmanship will, of course, be better than off the rack clothing, and you choose the fabric. The fit will be perfect, and you can customize details you want.

Thanks for that Kathie. I will warn her but I think she is putting the emphasis on quality rather than cost. Yes, having had clothes made myself in Bangkok, I know how good the value is there. Many years ago, the prices were a lot better in Hong Kong too.

Peteralan: There can be a very noticeable difference in tailoring quality between the mid-level and high-end tailors in HKG. For many years I'd had clothes made by Ash Samtani, a decent and mid-level tailor. However, it was not uncommon for a slacks hem to come undone, or for shirt buttons to fall off.

When I switched to WW Chan several years ago, all that changed. I was paying 20-50% more, but the tailoring quality and the fabric quality (though I recognize that the latter may not be important in your case) were enormously better. I haven't had a Chan hem or button fail ever.

Peter, I'm another who is old enough to remember when shopping in Hong Kong was a bargain. sigh.

Thanks all. This is enormously instructive.