Hoi An, Vietnam is known for its fabrics and tailors. LIterally hundreds of tailors line the streets of this extremely small and heavily-touristed town. The last time I visited Hoi An I had seven shirts made. These turned out to be some of my favorite shirts and I wore them so frequently that they eventually needed to be replaced. I vowed to return to Hoi An and acquire some more.

Lisa and I spent two entire days visiting different tailors, inspecting fabrics and haggling over prices. In the end we ordered clothing & shoes from 7 different places. Here is what we can remember buying:

• 23 mens shirts (some embroidered, some with western stylings)
• 3 womens suits including some with pants & skirts
• 13 womens shirts of various design & fabrics
• 1 pair of spaceman style silver shoes
• 1 pair of custom designed high heels
• 1 pair of swanky white & black dress shoes
• 1 pair of multi-colored checkerboard shoes
• 1 bright orange 1970s style suit & vest
• 2 light jackets

We spent about two days just picking up, trying on, having adjustments made, packing and shipping all of this back to the US. The post office can send someone to your hotel with packing materials to pick up your shipment for you and whisk it away by motorcycle. We were very pleased with most of what we got.

For anyone visiting Hoi An or Vietnam: We didn’t really know how much shipping would cost. We shipped two boxes of 11 kg & 14 kg to the US for a total of $123USD, so about $5/kg. Our guidebook offered the following suggestions for buying clothes:

1. Give yourself an extra day to allow for modifications
2. Try your clothing on and don’t hesitate to ask for changes
3. Linings might cost extra (they didn’t for us), double stitching should not
4. You can take off an extra inch, you can’t add one
5. Ask for a sample of any silk and test with a flame, real silk burns
6. Try to be creative, if you could find it at home, keep brainstorming
7. Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of shops, the all sell about the same thing. Find one you are comfortable with
8. Be creative, get stuff you couldn’t get at home
9. Have the shop keep your measurements on file in case you want to order more from home

I would add the following tips:

10. If you have a piece of clothing you like, bring it with as a model so the shops can copy it
11. Print out pictures of clothes you like, the tailors can recreate it. This is much more effective than trying to describe what you want and translate it to Vietnamese
12. Ask for an extra button to be sewn into each shirt
13. Ask for small details like slots for collar stiffeners on shirts, everything we asked for was included at no extra charge (but we wouldn’t have gotten it if we didn’t ask)
14. The stalls at the Hoi An fabric market are less professional looking but they seemed to do very good work and cost less than the tailors that had their own storefronts
15. Don’t go to the first tailor you see or follow someone touting their shop on the street, make an effort to compare prices at several places
16. Talk about price before going into detail about what you want or spending too much time in one shop
17. Make sure the shop you are in has enough fabrics that you like before agreeing to buy anything (like 5 shirts for the price of 4)
18. Bring a notebook around to take note of what you bought at each tailor, we had a hard time remembering what we ordered and from where. Receipts typically are not itemized and are not in English
19. Don’t forget to have shoes made, they are a great deal and you can really get anything you can dream up
20. Make sure to try Cau Lao, its a noodle dish only available in Hoi An