Like a Kid in a Candy Shop

By Tom and Julia

Hoi An, Vietnam

Tom:  All we did this week was shop for clothes.

Julia:  We got to shop for clothes all week!

Working with Van, our favorite tailor, at Thu Thuy Silk

Tom:  I now know the difference between chiffon, taffeta, silk, and satin.  I didn’t want to know these things, but it’s pretty hard to avoid after spending a week in Hoi An, a mercantile town on the coast of Vietnam that is rumored to have over 250 tailor shops. 

Julia:  Hoi An is a beautiful town. It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its long and rich cultural heritage.  It has been settled at various times by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, and the French.  The influences are visible throughout the historic buildings and impressive temples around town.  In addition, not far outside town are the famous My Son ruins.  And to top it all off, it’s only a few kilometers from a beautiful white sand beach.  

Tom:  We saw none of these things. Julia and I ended up being sucked into the vortex of talented tailors making good quality clothing at amazing prices.  We decided to make use of the town’s tailors by outfitting our entire wedding party during our weeks’ stay.  This meant choosing a good tailor and finding the right fabrics for my wedding suit, three groomsmen suits and six bridesmaid dresses.  Plus, you know, one or two things for ourselves.  We had our work cut out for us. 

Beautiful silks 

The Japanese-made covered bridge

Julia: The rhythm of our days began to take shape: wake up, breakfast, pick out clothing/conference with tailors/go to fittings, lunch, avoid heat of afternoon back at hotel, pick out clothing/conference with tailors/go to fittings, dinner, collapse into bed and fall into uneasy sleep punctuated by dreams about ill-fitting suits.

Tom: Luckily, by day two in Hoi An things began to come together.  I went for my first suit fitting and I looked handsome and dapper in my new suit.  They took to calling me James Bond around the shop. 

Julia: His suit looked like it came directly from the clearance rack at Men’s Warehouse.  I was horrified. 

Tom:  Granted, it didn’t come out as I imagined.  But luckily the dress Julia had made as a prototype for her bridesmaids came out great.  She looked like a vision.

Julia:  A vision of a deranged ballerina.  The pink silk chiffon was a no-go.  We switched tailors.

Tom:  The tropical air was boiling hot and humid every day.  When was it decided that men’s formalwear should be many layers of thick wool and that women’s formalwear should be light cotton and silk?  I spent most of my fittings with sweat pooling in my socks.  Luckily, we found a great tailor and started to be happy enough with the way things were looking that Julia would allow us to do something other than go to tailor shops.  By Thursday we were determined to spend the afternoon at the beach. 

Julia:  Thursday, the weather changed completely and we woke up to the sound of rain hammering at the windows.  This change in weather allowed me the time to try on the few remaining dresses in town that I had yet to investigate.    

Hoi An by night

Tom:  After living on dollars and cents for the last six months, it was hard not to feel stressed about ordering tailor-made clothing.  I mean, I guess the tailoring did make the things we ordered look okay. 

Julia: At the end of the week, Tom and I were walking back to the hotel when he actually said “After seeing how well tailor-made things look on us, I think we should get everything tailored from now on.”  He then said “Whoa, I think I just set off my own gay-dar.” 

 Now that we’ve made all of the bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen’s suits and finally mailed them all out, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

Tom:  That would be the weight of several hundred dollars.