Clothes, clothes, clothes

I have been sucked into the tailoring vortex of Hoi An! If I manage to escape tomorrow it will be a miracle! If I haven’t mentioned before, Hoi An is THE PLACE to have clothes made in Asia – better than Bangkok, Chang Mai, or anywhere else in Thailand. But with over 200 tailor shops in the small town, who can decide?

Well, I knew I wanted a pair of linen pants…so I devised a test. I would go into a shop and ask to see their linens. In some shops they would actually take me to polyesters! Easy test, I would just walk out. No where to go from there – I mean if they’re too cheap to show you the right fabric then how can you possibly expect good tailoring? Some people would take me to their Japanese silk (a better try but still can’t fool me) and I would say No Thanks and be on my way. Then, with the places where they did show me linen, I would advance to the second level of testing, that is the Smell Test. I would smell the linen and if it smelled musty or like mothballs then they obviously weren’t moving any fabric and who wants to have clothes made that smell bad anyway?

I was feeling pretty disappointed though after going through about 20 or 25 stores this way thinking the whole tailor thing was just a tourist trap and a waste of time. Everyone going in to have a shirt made of Japanese or Chinese silk or a pair of nylon pants with a dragon embroidered on the bottom – oh now THAT’S original (every tourist in Vietnam has a pair).

Well FINALLY I found a decent place – I went in, asked for linen, and the girl ACTUALLY showed me linen. Then I smelled it and it smelled fine! So I said, OK, let me see your catalogs. And after she saw me sniffing the fabrics she said,’Oh, you professional!’. So that must be some kind of trade secret that I didn’t know about!

Anyway I didn’t even really need to look in their catalogs for ideas because I already had some sketches drawn for 2 pairs of linen pants and a linen tunic so we started from there. And it just went on and on…ideas for bathing suits (3), tank tops, and dresses were formed in between crazy amounts of measurements they took all over my body. And yes, I did get sucked into one tourist purchase but at least it was authentic – a traditional Vietnamese dress, full length with side slits on each side up to the waist with a pair of wide-legged white satin pants underneath. I’ll probably NEVER wear it but it’s really beautiful and proper too – not showing any flesh like some tourists have them made. Maybe I’ll break it out for Tet.

Todat was fitting after fitting as we fine-tuned each piece and now just 24 hours later my new wardrobe is complete. And I’m really happy with the fit, style, and fabric of everything. What a bargain too – one pair of linen pants was $12 USD…so I was able to get 5 pairs for LESS than the price of ONE in any J.CREW catalog at home.

The only bummer of it all is the reality that I have to HAUL all the new purchases on my bike with me tomorrow.

Yes, it’s Goodbye Hoi An, Hello some other town that I forget at the moment but know that it’s 121 km south of here. (She doesn’t go half-way this girl does she?) No, it’s back with a vengeance on the diva-mobile for me.

Early to bed tonight…

Vietnamese women in the market at Hoi An

Snake wine for sale at the Chinese medicine shop

Victim of the Tailoring Vortex – must escape soon!

Add comment February 7th, 2002