Hoi An is known for its tailors. Competition is fierce since there are so many tailor shops in Hoi An. Mr. Selfish and I knew that we wanted to get some custom clothes made during our visit in Hoi An. Here’s what we learned:

1. Research what type of clothes you want made. Mr. Selfish and I found photographs of the clothes we wanted and put them on our iPhone. After we found the store we liked, we showed the store our photos and emailed them as well. I found a dress I liked but wanted it in red with white polka dots. Mr. Selfish had some dress shirts that he liked and also wanted a casual jacket made.

2. Research the tailor shops in Hoi An. There are so many of them that it is hard to distinguish the good shops from the bad ones. We relied mostly on Trip Advisor, which lists at least 80 tailors. I like reading the bad reviews the most, because the disgruntled customers are the ones I’m more concerned about. Based on my review of Trip Advisor, we mapped the more highly rated tailors and visited their shops. We ended up choosing Trung Duc (rated #4 on Trip Advisor) as our tailor shop and Friendly Shop (rated #3 on Trip Advisor) for my custom shoes.

3. Once you settle on a store, bargain to your heart’s content. But remember if you bargained for a $50USD suit, you’ll get a $50USD suit.

4. Minimize your deposit amount as much as possible. You want your shop to have an incentive to keep you satisfied.

5. Keep coming back for as many alterations as you want – until you are completely satisfied. We went back three times for additional alterations for Mr. Selfish’s suit and shirts whereas we back to Friendly Shop twice for my boots.

6. Mail back your clothes (plus any other stuff you want to ship). We had about 8 kilos worth of stuff, and it only cost about $50USD to ship back.

7. Enjoy your new clothes! Since we shipped most of our clothes back, we won’t be enjoying them until August.