Just For Me

A quick four-day trip to Hong Kong, and now I'm back in Taipei again. We had a wedding to attend there, and decided to extend it by a few days (using up some vacation days leftover from 2007) for some shopping and meals with friends!

Within hours of landing in HKG, we dropped our stuff off in the hotel and visited a recommended tailor in Admiralty. I walked into the little shop, was greeted by the storekeeper, and glanced across some of the fabrics on display. When he was done with the other customer, I inquired.

"Hi, how long does it take to tailor a suit?"
"Usually about four working days."
"Oh. Hmm, okay, that's too bad: I'm leaving on Sunday morning."
"Okay, we can do that!"

Wow, talk about an easy discussion. I was quite taken aback.

"Oh, uh ... really??"
"Sure, you order now, we measure you. Tomorrow, we do the first fitting. You can pick it up on Saturday."

M and I exchanged glances, she gave me her nod of approval, and I decided to go for it. At $4000HKD ($512CAD/USD), it's easily the most expensive suit I've ever purchased, but still $100CAD/USD lower than a famed tailor in Taipei.

He asked me all sorts of questions, made recommendations, gave me tons of options (most of which I had no idea how to answer and never given much thought to).

Two days later, I picked up my first tailored article of clothing ever (plus a tailored dress shirt). I'm told this is a slippery slope -- I'm told I'll never be able to go back to buying off-the-rack again -- but I don't know if my wallet can take many more of these dents.

But this suit: this suit was made just for me, and nobody else. I do like the thought of that.