How to buy a suit in Bangkok

"Suits are full of joy. They're the sartorial equivalent of a baby's smile." - Barney Stinson

Honestly, I've always never understood the essence of why people wore suits especially in a tropical country such as Singapore. I've always harbored the notion that suits in general were part of Western culture and they were made for people who lived in places which saw harsh cold climates. Of course I couldn't write an article without baseless information so I wiki'ed the following information (totally credible, wiki approved).

"The word suit derives from the French suite, meaning "following", from some Late Latin derivative form of the Latin verb sequor = "I follow", because the component garments (jacket and trousers and waistcoat) follow each other and have the same cloth and colour and are worn together."

This pretty much simplifies to Suits = Power Rangers fashion sense.

Putting my ignorance and the impracticality of suiting up in Singapore weather aside, I guess the most crucial benefit of wearing a suit is really that it multiplies a person's Badass-quotient depending on how well the suit fits. If you've watched Pulp Fiction, you know it's true. Additionally, having been an ambassador for fashion disasters for years, I know for a fact that suits would definitely be certified legal by even the most self-righteous of fashion police on Orchard Road.

So okay, let's break down the procedures of getting a suit made in Bangkok.

Time Needed
First off, before you rush off to buy a plane ticket to Bangkok, there are a few things you'll have to understand including the general mechanism that is required for a suit to be made. The full procedure starts with choosing of fabrics and taking of measurements. Depending on the package and your inability to decide, this process could take anything from five minutes to about an hour. After paying for your package, taking measurements and choosing of fabrics, and depending on the time of day which you have completed the first stage, a prototype of the garments ordered will be prepared for the test fitting phase which should be ready the next day. The test fitting stage would require about 30 minutes of your time at most and chances are there would be alterations which you would want to make to get the best fit of your suit which would push your collection of the final products to the next day (your order should be done in 12 hours). On the final fitting, you'd just be there to make sure everything is in order and this would be a breeze unless of course, you find a fault in the order which would require the postponement of your collection to another day. So basically, if you give one day for each of the procedure, you'd need a minimum to 3 days to get your suit. Of course, you could give a day of leeway just in case the orders could not be rushed out or if you require more alterations due to the immense amount of mango sticky rice you've consumed during your stay.

tl;dr You need 3 days to get your suit, 4 days if you want to play it safe.


Money Needed
Having never made a bespoke suit before, I was clueless about the price of getting one done. I had initially planned to bring only about 300SGD worth of Thai Baht for my trip as I was passively coaxed into believing that making suits in Thailand was really cheap but never got around to finding out how much suits really cost there (I still have no idea how much suits cost anywhere. LOL). Thankfully though, my mother convinced me to bring more money and I had just about enough money to last the trip after purchasing a suit package.



In total, I brought about 700SGD worth of baht and spent most of it on big items including the suit package and a pair of 100SGD spectacles I made so that I would not get as much attention in public places due to my sexy yellow spectacles. I've attached the price list (as of June 2016) that Alex's Fashion offers currently but I do not promise you that they're the best or that they're the cheapest but with such raving reviews, they're definitely trustworthy to an extent. (and no, I'm not sponsored by them but it'd be great if somebody would sponsor my unemployed butt.)

Where?
Okay this section is slightly tricky as it would influence your decision on where to make a suit in Bangkok. Alex's Fashion was recommended to me by a friend and I myself had not made any prior research when heading down. I would suggest that you do your own research and find your optimum choice but if you're a lazy bum like me, then I guess Alex's Fashion is definitely something you could consider.




Getting to the shop was not difficult. It hides on the 3rd floor of Amari Hotel (take the lift from the hotel lobby) which is about a 6-minute walk from the overly raved about Platinum Mall. There are a few other tailor shops on the same level and you could go from shop to shop asking for a price list if you please.



The whole city of Bangkok is littered with tailor shops and I've not been in any of them but some of them do display prices at their store front which you could take a look if you're staying in the city for say a week or more.

How?
The hardest part about buying a suit in my opinion is choosing of fabrics. Having had gone ahead with the SGD380 package, I had to choose fabrics for 3 shirts which I had trouble with given the array of cloths displayed at the shop. During this process, the personnel at the shop would recommend to you a range of cloths with your choice of color in mind. This did not help me as increasing the number choices just made the margin for error bigger T^T. I suggest if you're planning to make a suit, have an idea of what you want already in mind to expedite the process. After choosing the fabrics, measurements from neck to ankle are taken and you would need to make more choices including how many pockets your pants would have and whether your jacket will be using buttons or cuff links.

It does get easier though, when you return on the second day, all you have to do is try on the prototype of the clothing your ordered and the dudes at the shop will assist you in making alterations so that your order will turn out awesome when you collect it the next day.

On the final collection, you could try on your orders to make sure everything is in order and if there are any other alterations which are deemed necessary to be made, arrangements will be made to see that your order is good.

Why?
This is where Alex's Fashion won me over. There was a fault in the suit my friend ordered and because it was not convenient for us to keep on travelling to Amari Hotel, Alex's Fashion offered to send all our orders to our hotel the following day with the necessary corrections made. I believe that they would send the orders to Singapore if circumstances would see that it be done (don't quote me on this though). And it is this understanding of customers which truly summons my respect for this establishment. Business isn't always about product or price, it is more often than not about people.(You can quote me on this.) It is because of the positive attitude of doing business that has urged me to put the name of Alex's Fashion on my blog (cheyy, as though people actually read this)

Hope this helps somebody, tight lines and happy face :)

Web Links to Alex's Fashion
FACEBOOK      : https://www.facebook.com/AlexsFashion/
WEBSITE          : http://alex-fashions.com/
TRIPADVISOR : https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g293916-d4558126-Reviews-Alex_s_Fashion_Tailors-Bangkok.html


And here are a few pictures of me modelling with my new suit.