10 NOV 2017: A fine quality suit may be less than a must these days with casual dress becoming more common in offices. But when it comes to aiming for the C-suite, or impressing at a big event, nothing puts you a cut above like a perfectly fitted suit or jacket.
Prices of good tailoring have risen faster than the stock market, but I’ve found that the savings in having a suit custom made in Hong Kong rather than buying a designer suit off the rack in New York or Toronto can cover a few days of fun in Hong Kong before or after an Asian cruise. And the suit itself is couture. Nobody in the room will be better dressed than you are.
Hong Kong is still the home of the world’s finest bespoke tailoring. But it does pay to know something about what you’re buying. As always, the rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for. The budget tailors who sell by mail order in North America usually merely take factory-cut and machine sewn clothes and alter them to a few specifications. This is not custom work, but only alterations to make it ‘sort of’ fit.