men's clothes shopping in china

Clothes clothes clothes

 

I saw some what I would call reasonsably fashionable brown leather shoes in a market last week, for about RMB300 (20 pounds).  Good shoes in the real shops generally go for RMB600-900, and I think they all look like leftovers from the Miami Vice show.  The stall owner told me that they were from the same suppliers as a brand name shoe that was being sold in a department store.  Good news – because it’s been real hard to find shoes over here.

 

I’ve not found the department stores or malls to be so good.  I can’t afford the likes of Gucci and LVMH for clothing, and the clothes in the department stores are of debatable taste.  In New World dept store on nanjing xilu off people’s square, there’s a Georgo Armani store (no spelling mistake), which I believe is trying to pose as a premium brand.  I’m not sure who they are trying to kid.  Also, for the prices, I think I’d rather have my clothes custom made in a market somewhere.  It’s just a question of finding material and a suitable shape.  If not that, then buying look-alikes in xiang yang market.

 

My friend Lisa took me shopping to ‘Made in China’, a little store within a small small ‘mall’ within Jing An temple metro station.  Within the store, they had shirts and trousers for men and women, stacked up high on shelves.  It’s a tiny store, with a kind of curtained off store room cum changing room.  The quality of the clothes was excellent.  I bought three pairs of trousers for RMB150 each (10 pounds).  Each pair was ‘brand name’, e.g. Paul & Shark, and I couldn’t fault the quality of material or stitching.  

 

I had the length of the trousers altered at a local tailors across from my apartment, at 3RMB each (10p).  I think I made them all a little too short, I’ve never been very good at gauging trouser length on my own.

 

My office shirts are all made in the dong jia du road fabric market.  The material and tailorwork is considerably lower than the ‘real’ stuff.  But unless I’m being fussy, it does the job just fine.  They cost me RMB80 (5 pounds) each, from stall 123.  My friend Chris had some made with better material, and machine made – they look to be of a much higher quality, they cost him RMB120.

 

I’ve had one suit made so far, and a pair of trousers.  I wasn’t happy with the making of the suit, from the perspectives of cutting, quality of adornments (buttons, zips, trouser waistband insert), and stitching (belt buckles, trouser buttonholes).  The separate pair of trousers I got from stall 66.  They are much better made, although I think a little baggy around the ankles.  I should try them out for a suit.  The suit cost me about 500 kuai I think – RMB60 per metre of fabric, and about RMB200 for workmanship

 

I’m very happy walking around wearing my cheaper clothes.  The metro, taxis, slurping noodles, or balancing dumplings on a spoon, and no cloth napkins in sight, I’m much better off leaving my UK clothes safely in a cupboard.

 

What I’d really like… is to find a tailor here who knows how to cut an English or Italian cut.  A recommendation would be nice.  I’ll track someone down through britcham sooner or later I guess.