BigbigJohnny
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- Dec 16, 2013
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Any photos?
I was thinking go there give them a try a year or two ago but didn't do that after some member post their photo here.
I was thinking go there give them a try a year or two ago but didn't do that after some member post their photo here.
Difficult one off the top but certainly significant. I will look for the accounts to establish that difference but I must caveat that by saying that this merely reflected the cloth I had chosen and for a first commission there is a learning curve. It is the second and later commissions which are the best as both client and cutter get the measure (forgive the pun) of one another. This time I thus selected cloths which were readily available as opposed to something which might have had to come from the UK or which I might have brought to move to a CMT commission. Those cloths were boring as well, something which has now been driven out of my mind.
I now have the confidence in both to either tell them ahead of arrival what I require (which could well extend to a Zegna cloth or similar) else bring it myself in the sure knowledge that the product will justify that expense. My thinking on cloth is also changing now I have had the benefit of the undoubted wisdom of my friend and mentor.
Commissioning a bespoke suit is, to me at least, something which is to be enjoyed both from cloth selection through to delivery and then being worn. I am not the average visitor to Hong Kong who buys one or two suits almost as a bounden duty because they think that they might be cheap as this thread demonstrates in far too many cases. They probably are cheap, they are quite correct in their assertion but another word beginning with 'c' would be more accurate - 'crap'. It is quite impossible to approach the Star Ferry terminal, Kowloonside, without at least ten individuals soliciting custom for either a "cheap suit" or a "copy watch", notwithstanding the fact that I would be wearing a genuine Omega Constellation watch of which I have six!
My interest in bespoke extends far beyond simply workmanship etc. but in sticking with Gordon Yao the quality was right enough, style and cloth unadventurous but merely sufficient unto the day: However, my lethargy was not and my interest has now been rekindled in a big way. For someone who had his first bespoke suit at age 16 at my late father's tailor this is no bad thing and the advice I now have received excellent in all ways. I now intend to enjoy this once again and fully intend to clear out a number of Yao suits from my wardrobe - prematurely over the next couple of years, probably at a rate of six per year. Had I been able to get to Hong Kong this autumn (the demands of being a Chairman/MD of a substantial and growing business prevented me) I would certainly have commissioned some very different suits in both style and cloth under an expert eye working with both the advice I now have and having seen the quality offered by GT. Some of this will be extended to AHMC.
I am also planning to try a local UK tailor on the same basis, not for regular use but to introduce the variety I spoke of earlier: He too will be required to meet my new aspirations for style etc and this will probably either be CMT or will certainly use a cloth I have instructed him to buy in advance. This therefore takes away any danger of a quick decision in a shop which even to an experienced eye is far from ideal.
