Fabric Market Tailors

We had a great weekend! Our friend Lauren, mentioned as our Shanghai expert previously, took us to the South Bund Fabric market. Anyone can head here, but there are so many stalls selling what appears to be similar items, it helps to have some recommendations on good places. The “fabric market” is where you go to get customized clothing. Basically, it's 3 floors of stalls all selling different types of fabrics and tailors to design & craft anything your heart desires. :)

First, Lauren took me to her “Jersey Lady” who can recreate anything in jersey form. For Lauren she has done a couple dresses, blouses and even suit jackets.  Her “shop” is named “Fat Lady” which I think is hilarious because everything she sells is obviously stretchy. I’m getting this Dolce & Gabbana dress recreated in a solid coral, thick jersey, still with the black back and waist band.

Dolce & Gabbana Dress

We also headed to Lauren’s more all-encompassing seamstress, Lulu. When we first got there, only Lulu’s husband was there, and he spoke limited English but certainly recognized Lauren so we brought out the pictures we had, and got to work. Basically, you can bring pictures of what you want, bring an actual item of clothing for them to replicate in another fabric/patter/color, or they also have picture and samples of different designs. I was trying to stick to 2 things and not get side-tracked, but Lulu’s shop had quite a few things that caught my eye. I’m also thinking you could try to describe things, but I’d be wary of this as with the language barrier you want to do everything you can to try to be on the same page.

Once you are aligned on design, they bring out the fabrics. For me, I wanted a white, leather jacket (see Vince inspiration below). He brought out a couple leathers and then we also picked out different linings and I went for a pale pink, silk cotton for spring. Now, if I wanted something fancy for a lining, there is another silk place around the corner that has more variety. Lulu would then tell you how much you need and you could go pick it out and bring it back. Same would be said for embellishments. Lulu has some, but limited, whereas right around the corner there’s a stall with every possible button / clasp you could imagine.

Vince - Leather Jacket

After settling on all the details, and getting your measurements done, you talk price. My favorite part is how Lauren refers to there as “projects.” I think that’s a great way to think about it. Some will work out great, as she’s shown me many examples, and some, maybe not. When you’re talking price, we did a little negotiation, but not a ton since Lauren has been working with Lulu for 3 years now. Then once, or if, you agree you put down a deposit of about 50%. Both of my projects will take about a week at which point I’ll pay in full if I like or if they need to redo something.

Also, Matt on his own (and with the help of a random German friend he made in the market) found a shirt/suit place. He got measured and picked out fabrics for about 5 different dress shirts. Each shirt costs about $15 and will be delivered this week!

More to report back in 7-10 days time... but if this works out, I can see it getting quite addictive!

"Fat Lady" / Jersey Girl & Lauren!

Matt getting some help from Susan on his shirts

I did say anything! which includes fleece PJs.

Blouse stall

Lace stall

better perspective on one of the floors