How does the market support so many tailors?

[Metapod]

Which tailor shops along Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road have a real tailor inside? A show of hands please.......

Tailor On Ten. Right down the end of Sukhumvit Soi 8. It is run by 2 Canadian brothers. Not your typical shoddy Indian 'tailor' at all.

Hands down the best tailor in Bangkok.

http://www.tailoronten.com/

Here is a video of the shop

Edited February 24, 2015 by Metapod

[Thongkorn]

Most are just "fronts" and the items are all made centrally in one factory/shop so they are working on commission basis for the factory.

Correct there are lots of Factory's in Bangkok , there are places you can go and buy Jeans at a knock down price, that's where all the Thai stall holders go to but there Jeans and cloths to sell

[DefaultName]

as a earlier poster mentioned, can anyone shed any light on how they get the work permits?? it does also baffles me. the indians i mean.

Thailand has an Indian community that hold Thai citizenship. No work permit needed.

I got some stuff made a few months back, asked the tailor how long he'd been in Thailand. He said that he was born here, as were his parents and grandparents. When I questioned his strong Indian accent, he told me that the children are sent to school in India because if they stayed in Thailand they finished school with no work ethic or respect for authority. Makes you think.

[joesanunu]

There are lots of tailors because they all make money.

First.

It's cheap to setup. A table, some lights, a cash register, a tape measure, pencil & paper.

Second.

The fabric is put there on consignment by the textile mfg.

Costs almost nothing to open shop.

Third.

That wonderful fabric they solid you is cheap garbage.

No more than 1,000Bt in costs for that nice suit.

Fourth.

They pay 200Bt for the 15 year old seamstress (in the sweatshop at the end of the Soi) to put together the suit.

Fifth.

The motorcycle delivery guy that takes the fabric to the sweatshop then delivers it back to the shop gets 20Bt.

Sixth.

They hire illegal Nepalese guys on commission to pull you in and measure.

Seventh.

They will delay the delivery until your departure date so they don't have to make adjustmants.

That 'genuine, high quality Armani replica', 10,000Bt suit actual cost is less than 1,300Bt.

Edited February 25, 2015 by joesanunu

[Thai at Heart]

Most are just "fronts" and the items are all made centrally in one factory/shop so they are working on commission basis for the factory.

Very true.......

They are on commission and are also money washing exercises.

[Stradavarius37]

Hey, you want suit? Nice Suit? Hey hey Suit! Suit!

[joesanunu]

Hey, you want suit? Nice Suit? Hey hey Suit! Suit!

They used to annoy me. I felt like throwing them into traffic when they blocked the footpath.... but now, i squeeze their hand until it almost breaks when the insist on introducing themselves.

It's fun. Try it. You'll be glad you did.

[KittenKong]

These tailor shops survive exactly the same way that the thousands of empty massage parlours, meter-less taxis, restaurants, opticians, hairdressers, real estate agents and other such places survive. Rather than charge fair prices and be quite busy most of the time but make just a small profit on each job they prefer to charge absurdly high prices and do nothing most of the time and occasionally make a huge profit when some poor sucker bites.

There is nothing complicated about this at all.

[williet98248]

a thai business friend explained it to me once. as said by others the shops are just fronts or agents to get orders and many are connected.

take a close look at the samples they have on show; the styling is often terrible, the fabric and stitching low quality.

of course they use the cheapest labour and materials to maximise profit

and guess what... your suit or dress will be ready to be collected the day before or day you depart meaning you have little time to kick up a fuss.

i'm sure that there are some reputable tailors but you need to know what you are buying

I am an expat not a tourist. I had a suit made at a shop in Kata Beach. It took four fittings over a week, ten days. I picked the fabric and spent a lot of time examining the result and having alterations made for a proper fit. Cost about 7,000 baht. I was so happy with the result that I had another complete suit made. The fabric was a wrinkle free linen and eventually I discovered I could toss the whole thing in the washing machine. Wash and wear with a minor touchup with an iron. If you want a suit made in 24 hours for practically nothing you will get what you paid for. The shop just does the measuring and fitting and sends the work out to a low paid person with a sewing machine. You don't get a real tailor. But if you are willing to put in the time and effort you can get a decent made to measure suit at a reasonable price. Dunno how the shops make any money as I never saw any other customers in the shop every time I was there. Just four or five sales people standing around. But there were up to ten suits hanging on the rack waiting to be picked up.

[elgenon]

It's called 'laundering' not tailoring. If they are not tax relief spin offs they are launderers of currency. Simple really. So why not investigated? Well tea money from an Indian business is peanuts.

This is an awfully strong allegation. What proof can you provide?

Why would they pay touts?

[BernieOnTour]

They are also big time in Hong Kong. Wondered about it myself.

Actually, the best tailor made suits and shirts in SE Asia I got in Hongkong in Kowloon 4 years ago. Everyone of the company went there, expats as well as business travelers. However, not cheap, you paid a similar price as for a good Boss suit in a department store.

[Time Traveller]

as a earlier poster mentioned, can anyone shed any light on how they get the work permits?? it does also baffles me. the indians i mean.

Thailand has an Indian community that hold Thai citizenship. No work permit needed.

Indian immigrants owning tailor shops in Thailand? As if. Next you'll be telling us that the noodle shops in thailand are owned by Chinese immigrants.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Time Traveller

[marko kok prong]

a thai business friend explained it to me once. as said by others the shops are just fronts or agents to get orders and many are connected.

take a close look at the samples they have on show; the styling is often terrible, the fabric and stitching low quality.

of course they use the cheapest labour and materials to maximise profit

and guess what... your suit or dress will be ready to be collected the day before or day you depart meaning you have little time to kick up a fuss.

i'm sure that there are some reputable tailors but you need to know what you are buying

I am an expat not a tourist. I had a suit made at a shop in Kata Beach. It took four fittings over a week, ten days. I picked the fabric and spent a lot of time examining the result and having alterations made for a proper fit. Cost about 7,000 baht. I was so happy with the result that I had another complete suit made. The fabric was a wrinkle free linen and eventually I discovered I could toss the whole thing in the washing machine. Wash and wear with a minor touchup with an iron. If you want a suit made in 24 hours for practically nothing you will get what you paid for. The shop just does the measuring and fitting and sends the work out to a low paid person with a sewing machine. You don't get a real tailor. But if you are willing to put in the time and effort you can get a decent made to measure suit at a reasonable price. Dunno how the shops make any money as I never saw any other customers in the shop every time I was there. Just four or five sales people standing around. But there were up to ten suits hanging on the rack waiting to be picked up.

Did they measure your third leg?

[Crossy]

I am an expat not a tourist. I had a suit made at a shop in Kata Beach. It took four fittings over a week, ten days. I picked the fabric and spent a lot of time examining the result and having alterations made for a proper fit. Cost about 7,000 baht. I was so happy with the result that I had another complete suit made. The fabric was a wrinkle free linen and eventually I discovered I could toss the whole thing in the washing machine. Wash and wear with a minor touchup with an iron. If you want a suit made in 24 hours for practically nothing you will get what you paid for. The shop just does the measuring and fitting and sends the work out to a low paid person with a sewing machine. You don't get a real tailor. But if you are willing to put in the time and effort you can get a decent made to measure suit at a reasonable price. Dunno how the shops make any money as I never saw any other customers in the shop every time I was there. Just four or five sales people standing around. But there were up to ten suits hanging on the rack waiting to be picked up.

I rarely wear a suit even when meeting high level officials, once you've been to see the governor of SRT whilst cooking in a suit and he's wearing a polo and chinos, you don't do it again, although I do draw the line at cut-off shorts, sweaty T, toe 'tectors, hi-viz and hard hat (that was the boss man at MTR Hong Kong).

Being a somewhat plump overweight fat English b'stard I get my shirts and pants tailored by a nice Thai gentleman in a little shop hidden in the a55 end of Rangsit market.

Wifey found him, great prices, quality materials, no issues.

Everyone happy

[Centrum]

as a earlier poster mentioned, can anyone shed any light on how they get the work permits?? it does also baffles me. the indians i mean.

Thailand has an Indian community that hold Thai citizenship. No work permit needed.

Or alternatively, the freshly arrived youngsters now dominating the Indra shopping centre, are sold fake IDs from Kanchanaburi.

Been going on for years.

I'd add on to the OP query, Indian restaurants as well. Far too many empty seats around Pratunam to be a viable business proposition, but they still open up

whenever there's an opportunity.

[redandyellow]

Most are just "fronts" and the items are all made centrally in one factory/shop so they are working on commission basis for the factory.

And here I thought those 2 suits I bought in Chiang Mai from the fruity tailor were custom fitted. Long Since thrown away by the way..

Must of been Chiang Mai Dreamin'

[tw25rw]

as a earlier poster mentioned, can anyone shed any light on how they get the work permits?? it does also baffles me. the indians i mean.

Thailand has an Indian community that hold Thai citizenship. No work permit needed.

Indian immigrants owning tailor shops in Thailand? As if. Next you'll be telling us that the noodle shops in thailand are owned by Chinese immigrants.

The Sikh guy I buy my suits from told me his kids are 4th generation Thai.

[fey]

never seen what looked like a paying customer in one of these places.

like many other places around here, i figure employee pay and rents are so cheap that it just does not matter that much to have the store open. when the $2 paychecks run out they just close and another sucker tries it.

the end result is a lot of dudes just standing on the sidewalk in front of stores doing nothing or holding menus.

some people do like the attention these places provide (similar to Paul from the diamond center type stuff or the 'i guarantee it!' men's warehouse guy in the us).

associates will literally hover over you and the sale is made as much on negotiation as it is quality work or material. it's common in certain cultures.

i can't stand this type of service and would buy off a used clothes rack to avoid it, which i in fact do.

Edited February 26, 2015 by fey

[vishalm22]

my thai friend recomended me a designer in thonglor soi 20 ALTA BRIDAL, they really make good quality suits, its a small shop but expert in tailoring, actutally thai people know where to make good suit but we are new to bangkok so dont know the shop.

[Chivas]

In their defence I had a suit made in Naklua in Pattaya in 1994 cant remember how much, think around 2000 Baht but its as good today as it was then 21 years ago.

I just keep it for Weddings etc.....

[konying]

I know they are all fronts but keeping the lights on, rent in central tourist areas, there has got to be something going on? These shops have almost no custom.

I got in a bind once and had to rush order a white pilot shirt from some place at Chiang Mai night bazaar. It was so ill fitting and cheap I wore once and threw it away. The price same as quality shirts I order online that last for years.

Somewhat wrong assumption.

Many tourists have suits and shirts tailor made. Many pay crazy prices like 6000-10000 per suit and order 3-4 on each visit .

With such mark ups, shops do not need to be busy, just need 1-2 customer per day to have a good living.

I know a few guys who come over twice per year and each time spend 80000 baht, each time I tell them they are being ripped, yet each time they go back and always say " but back home it would have cost me 5 times more"

[Thongkorn]

You can buy a reasonable suite in the UK for about £65, Coincidentally they are made in India. I tried explaining that to one of these Indian tailors he would not believe me.

[bendejo]

There used to be a whole district of the sewing shops that did the orders for these quality tailors. They were out in Thonglor, south of Suk. The whole area was demolished about ten years ago, don't know where it is now.

Those shops in lower Suk can help you with whatever it is you want, such as money exchange and what they will claim are the cheapest possible airline tickets (not true). I would guess a whole lot of other things as well...

Many of the touts are Nepalis.

As for the rip-off aspect of the clothing, the thing is you have to do your homework if you're going to pursue getting decent quality -- you have to learn about cloth, lining, styling etc. When you go to one of these places and they see that you really don't know what it is you want, they interpret it as you grabbing your ankles. I lived in India for a bit in the 1970s when clothing off the rack hadn't caught on that well over there, and tailoring was really cheap, like I once had an all-weather suit made for about US$20 for the cloth (which I had to go into town to pick out myself, such cloth was called 'suiting') and about the same price for the labor. Also had to pick out inner lining, the 'innerface' stuff that makes the lapels stiff , buttons etc. Never thought about these things before. Like I said, homework.

Got into a conversation once with a farang in Bangkok for vacation, the sort of vacation where he never strayed more than a few blocks from Nana. He said he wanted to pick up a dozen tailor-made shirts while in town, I told him to at least figure out what kind of cloth he wanted. He couldn't be bothered, "I just want some good tailor-made shirts." When he finally chose one of the 'hello suit?" touts I imagine the dialogue was something like this:

"I just want some good quality white shirts"

"Yes yes, we only have besht quality!"

My guess is spent over US$500 for shirts of lesser quality than he could have bought back home, ready-made, for a lot less.

[Seastallion]

Most are just "fronts" and the items are all made centrally in one factory/shop so they are working on commission basis for the factory.

Really? The tailors I've been to have been the real deal.... you can see the chalk and the tables and the cloth and the patterns, and people working.....mind you that was BKK, so are you talking about Chiang Mai?

[infinity11]

...or condos, or hotels , or massage shops, or...insert other here...?

low overhead?

[Brit_Doggie]

The indian tailors have a great return custom trade going,it may look to you that they are idle but most work is done by outworkers whether they be family or whatever.

[AZBill]

I never found them much cheaper for a nice suit than getting one made in the US. Quality was good though.

[thaibook]

i had my wedding suit made in bkk by some old litthe thai tailor, it was about 6 years ago, and it fitted perfectly, he even made me a shirt, as all the ones he had were too small. no pressure selling, no gimmick, and first class product. i do know what to look for as my granddad was a master tailor.so the good shop are out there, but that was not in a tourist place in bkk, and i paid about 5000 baht.

Hello ericnoodeeka, do you remember the name and location of this tailor, by any chance? Thanks.

[AYJAYDEE]

It's called 'laundering' not tailoring. If they are not tax relief spin offs they are launderers of currency. Simple really. So why not investigated? Well tea money from an Indian business is peanuts.

so what currency are they laundering and how?

[NickJ]

When I walk by those shops.......I think how lucky I am not to ever have to wear one....