Tailoring a (Wedding) Suit - Dickson Menswear Mr. Wong

Exactly three weeks after I had my first appointment with my tailor, I went back for a fitting session. To be honest, there was no major problems when I first tried on the suit. Overall, it looked great when I first tried on the suit! However, we took our time to go through the details, after which we decided there were some minor alterations to be made :

• The pants was a wee bit loose, so I requested for the waistline to be reduced by half an inch.
• The shirt came with single, instead of double cuff. I was informed that it’ll be changed, before I even noticed it.
• Turned out my left and right arms (not my shirt sleeve) were not of equal lengths. Minor alteration had to be done to achieve an even, symmetrical look.
• A second fitting session in one week’s time, which should also be the final session. Will post another update in a couple of days!

By the way, I finally have a tailor-made suit to call my own! Till now, I have not revealed who my tailor is. He is none other than Mr. Wong from Dickson Menswears.

His shop, with a cute little yellow signboard, is located in Suntec City near Carrefour, at Basement 1, beside Pizza Hut.

Mr. Wong has already moved to Bras Basah Complex. (Bras Basah Complex #01-31) His trademark signboard was nowhere to be seen when I visited his new store. If you have made suits with Mr. Wong, cravats are available for rental, each at $20 deposit.
Return the cravat to get back your money!

If you’ve been roaming around Singapore Brides or HardwareZone looking for information on tailoring a wedding suit, no doubt his name would have appeared on your radar. Despite reading mixed reviews (people tend to have an issue with his attitude it seems) on his services, I decided to give it a try, and he did not disappoint us at all!

* Please note that he works on an appointment-only basis, so you need to give him call to schedule a time first.

Our first impression of the shop? It is so tiny that you barely have space to walk in it, and all kinds of suits were on display there. Once there, we had a nice, long chat with Mr. Wong, who took his time to explain to us how does tailoring a suit work, and what kind of package he offers. We didn’t have any problems with him, unlike some others who did.

Despite not having to make a decision on the spot, I made up my mind to enlist his services. The primary reason being that he came across to me as having the traits of a “old school” tailor. During our conversation with him, he would include snippets of information about how things used to work in the past, and that nowadays people prefer so-and-so and don’t like this-and-that. Also, he would explain why certain parts of a suit are made a certain way, and how a suit is to be worn etc.

All these, I feel, are value-added little things which didn’t make me feel as if he is just out to make my money. I ended up taking a package from him, which includes the suit jacket, a long sleeve shirt, and two long pants. The choice of my fabrics for both the jacket and the shirt sort of increased the price a little, so do confirm the pricing before deciding your fabrics, just in case. Total cost? S$450. Only a token deposit was required at this moment, and he said any amount will do (any.. wh.. what?) – we handed him S$50.

* The suit was made in 2010

Now, I understand that the price is not the cheapest – you can definitely get the same deal at a lower price if you were to visit Peninsula Plaza or Chinatown. Would the level of service be the same? At the end of the day, all I can say is that it was money well spent for myself as everything came out the way I wanted, and right on schedule too.

One important thing to note – it’s highly recommended you have something in mind before tailoring a suit at Dickson Menswear. He isn’t exactly the type to give you ideas, although you could take a look at the existing suits in his shop as a guide. After all, you’ll need to know the anatomy of a suit prior to customizing it! (refer to my previous post for more information)

It has been two weeks since I’ve worn my suit during my brother’s wedding. I’ve made a final trip back to Dickson Menswear to collect my second pair of pants that was tailored as part of the package. Once again, the experience was hassle free. Tried on the pants, and paid the remaining balance of $50 after confirming all was OK – in just 5 minutes.

Mr Wong did give a final piece of advice – keep one pair of pants together with the suit, and not wear it. This is to ensure that there is always a brand-new suit ready to be worn, as the fabric of the pants was made to match the suit’s fabric.

All in all, it was a satisfactory experience throughout the few appointments that I had with Mr. Wong. Good luck with your suit-making experience!

Dickson Menswear (S) Pte Ltd
Bras Basah Complex #01-31
Tel : 6836 9078