If you come to China, everyone will tell you about tailor-made clothing, and that nothing beats it. This weekend, our fieldtrip took us to the most famous fabric market in Shanghai. It is a three floor market full of all sorts of fabrics where you can find Shanghai’s best tailors. 

Here you can make your haute-couture dreams come true. Almost every stall has its own tailor who can whip up whatever you want in about a week. Our best bet was to buy something that had already been made – most stalls have samples hanging up that you can try on – or bring in an item we liked to have copied in a new fabric. Also, even if many vendors speak English it was good for us to have some knowledge of Chinese and someone from INA to help us bargain. 

In China, one of the first things you learn is to negotiate, because everything is negotiable, and at the fabric market you should not hesitate to negotiate firmly. It's very interesting to play their games and at the same time improve your mandarin with the locals.

The Chinese tailor will create anything from business shirts and suits to coats, jeans, dresses and jackets… For example I had two elegant dresses made, one jacket to go to work, one cashmere coat and some shirts, all of that for around 150 Euros…

 

Being at the Fabric & Tailor Market also allows you to see a different side of Shanghai. It is not as glamorous as the touristy and business areas and there are no modern sky scrapers or shopping centers.

 

This was definitely one of the most fun fieldtrips we have done so far!!!