Custom Made (part two)

Yesterday, I ordered two silk dresses, two cotton dresses, two silk shirts, and four pairs of shoes. For each item, I was able to pick out the fabric, make design changes, and have measurements taken for a perfect fit.

Then, this morning, as I was walking around the Old Quarter, I ended up buying two more items…I think I was addicted to the idea of made to order clothing. I ordered a chiffon dress and a cotton romper, and both the shop keepers promised to deliver these items to the hotel by 5:30 today. Unbelievable.

As my afternoon at the pool progressed, I became more and more excited. At one point, a few hours from pick-up time, another Fulbrighter, Jen, said “It feels like Christmas.” I agreed. I struggled with the anticipation and told myself that everything would look as wonderful as I hoped.

But I was nervous…in one case I only pointed out one small picture of a dress in an old catalog and one pair of shoes I said I wanted to be like ones I found in a magazine, but with a wedge instead of a heel, shorter instead of taller, with no buckle and a different color. Would they actually get everything right?

Finally, at around 4:00 I started making the rounds to pick up my items. My first stop was to pick up my silk goods. When I walked in, they remembered me from the day before, quickly picked up my items from a table, and ushered me into a “dressing room” to change. (This was actually a curtain that didn’t totally wrap around, exposing a small portion of myself to people walking by on the street.) Each item looked fantastic, but the perfectionist worker at Sun Designs saw the need for small changes in each. She promised these changes would make the items look even better on me, and she would have them delivered to the hotel the evening. Later, when these items were delivered, I tried them on again. She was right; they fit perfectly!

Next stop was the shoe store. Two pairs of the shoes looked stunning and fit like a dream. One pair of flats, however, was just a tad big, and oxfords had a pointy toe; too pointy, in my opinion. The shoe store workers assured me that these were easy fixes, and the changes would only take a few hours. They managed to make the changes in such a short amount of time, and I am thrilled with each of my four pairs of custom made shoes. Seriously, how did they change the toe of a shoe in a few hours?

The third stop was to pick up my cotton floral dresses, which are incredibly common in Hoi An. Although these were my smallest purchase, they ended up causing the most difficulty. They needed large amounts of fabric removed from the top portion of the dress, and the shopkeeper promised to deliver to them to the hotel…there was a minor snafu with the delivery, but everything was worked out in the end. I believe a large number of Fulbright participants are leaving Hoi An with floral dresses.

The romper I ordered this morning was delivered at 5:30 as promised, and it fit perfectly! I know that it is a little silly for a grown-up person to purchase a romper, but it seemed like the thing to do in Hoi An, since they were everywhere, and my friend Sarah bought one it looked so comfortable and cute! Now, I have my own perfectly fitting romper.

The chiffon dress was the last item of clothing I had left to see. It arrived a little late, due to a surprise massive rain shower. When it came, it looked lovely, which is good because I was a little nervous about the dark fabric I selected. It needed to be taken out in the rib cage just a little, but when it was delivered later in the evening it was, once again, a perfect fit. I am really excited about this dress, it is a style that I've never been able to wear off the rack.

I am amazed at the process of custom order shoes and clothes. How the heck do they do it? I tried to ask questions about the process, but the answers didn’t satisfy my interest. I was told “a family sews by the river” and “they sometimes work at night.” The people involved in the process are so incredibly nice, and in some cases my clothes and shoes appeared on motorcycle from another part of town. If I was in Hoi An longer, I think I would try to convince somebody to take me to the place they are stitched and sewn. I believe it would be an awesome topic for a documentary short, if anybody is looking for ideas.

Overall, I am thrilled with all of my purchases. In all honesty, I did spend a lot of money. I bought two silk dresses, two silk shirts, two cotton dresses, a cotton romper, a chiffon dress, and four pair of leather shoes-all custom made-for about $300. This is more money than I spent during the rest of the trip combined, but I am very happy with my purchases.

I think it will be hard to go back to buying my clothes at Target when I get back…