“Hello boss, nice to meet you.”

Another day at the office? No, this is a street in Koh Samui and an Indian tailor has just identified you as a potential customer. He’s eager to get you looking your very best in one of his creations.

A familiar approach, “Armani suit for you, my friend?”, occurs all over and ranges from affable to obseqious, at various levels of tenacity.

With dozens of tailors around Samui, you’re bound to encounter one during your stay. Their shop-fronts (found on the beach, along high streets and in towns) suggest direct access to designs and fabrics from the big names in fashion, at very low prices.

Should you do it? We don’t have strong feelings, just a general distaste for persistent salesmen who get in the way and want to shake hands to celebrate our blossoming friendship.

Ever students of science, we undertook a trial transaction. Here we’ll relate our single experience of such enterprise.

Our date with the Indian tailor

We were on holiday in Phuket, our first trip to Thailand. The prices and catalogues impressed us, so we ordered a suit in Armani fabric and a dress in blue silk. We confirmed that both could be completed before our departure date, paid a substantial deposit and went back to the pool.

That was the plan – it actually became a series of fittings and re-fittings, corrections and re-makes, missed deadlines and phone calls leading to a last-minute delivery by motorcycle on the morning of our departure.

Not the stress-free holiday we had in mind.

Were we finally satisfied, when the dust settled?

Not at all.

In the rush, the suit was somehow transformed from Armani fabric to a very cheap material that wouldn’t have looked good even if it fitted correctly. Which it didn’t.

The dress emerged from the bag as badly made as the first attempt.

Back home, we gave these experiments away without ever wearing them, and classified the whole thing as a learning experience.

Understand the rules and risks

Do we classify all Samui tailors as incompetents and crooks? No, but if you’re going to deal with them you need to understand the rules and the risks.

• After you’ve paid the deposit and told the tailor your departure date, they hold all the cards.
• You must accept that, no matter what happens, you are not going to get any money back – ever!
• If you’re not satisfied, they’ll keep trying until you run out of patience or time.
• The best outcome will be that you go home well satisfied, with well-made clothes that fit like a dream.
• Or, like us, you could get nothing usable in return for your investment.
• Probably most transactions fall somewhere between these extremes.

What’s your holiday worth?

Our conclusion was that, factoring in the risk and the amount of precious holiday time spent hanging around for fitting, re-fitting, deliveries, more fitting…we would not do it again. You, as a responsible consumer, should make your own judgment.

(Flickr Creative Commons photo: Kevin N. Murphy)

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With love,
  Koh Samui Sunset

Filed under: (Before you go) What to know by admin