Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
common practice for Chinese factories
to make a little more than was ordered
and sell the
overstock
out the back
door. This grey market gear makes its
way, t ogether with
factory seconds
,
to backstreet stores, which sell it on at
not much over cost price. Sometimes
the label is cut or defaced, as a legal
requirement, but never in such a way
that it's not easy to work out.
These shops will be unpromising
from the outside, quite possibly won't
have a name, and will usually carry
their own lines in the window, with
the good stuff hung rather negli-
gently on a rail at the back. The place
to start is at
Ruijin Er Lu
, at the
intersection with Huaihai Zhong Lu.
Head south down the street then turn
onto Nanchang Lu; look in any
clothes shop that's busy on the way. A
second concentration of these stores
is on
Fuxing Zhong Lu
, east of
Baoqing Lu. There's not much in the
way of men's clothes, but try your
luck at the nameless store at 1236
Fuxing Zhong Lu, which at the time
of writing was selling Zegna and
Armani suits for ¥300.
Hot Wind
热风
rè fēng
128 Fujian Zhong Lu; 358 Huaihai Zhong Lu; 127
Ruijin Yi Lu; 106 Ruijin Yi Lu; 4th floor, 408A
Grand Gateway; 100 Xiangyang Bei Lu; 25
Caobao Lu; 890 Changning Lu;
W
www.hotwind
.net.
Named perhaps for the feeling that
passes through a fashionista on discovering
these little gold mines. Hot Wind takes
factory overstock, whacks their own label
on top of the original and sells it on for ¥150
or so. Your job then, is to scrape their labels
off with a nail or find the secondary label on
the hem, and discover who really made it -
you can turn up some great bargains. Good
shoes too, but it's impossible to get the
labels off. The most convenient store is the
one on Huaihai Zhong Lu: go to Huangpi
Nan Lu metro station and you'll find it
opposite exit 3 (see map, pp.70-71).
bouclé and gold lamé - that can be
bargained down to ¥20-50 per metre, a
little more for silk or cashmere (be wary with
silk though as some of it is fake). In addition,
most shops also have an on-site tailor,
though few will speak English (one that
does is Eric Chang at no. 310). Come with
a good idea of what you want - a photo
from a fashion magazine will do, but you'll
get much better results if you ask them to
directly copy something you give them; if
you're interested in a man's suit they'll show
you a catalogue of styles. Don't be talked
into buying more material than you need: a
man's suit requires about 5m of material, a
shirt about 1.5m. Prices vary, but expect to
pay roughly ¥80 for a linen shirt, ¥100 for
wool trousers, and ¥220 for a man's lined
corduroy blazer. If you've bartered sharply,
the total price for a man's wool suit with a
spare pair of trousers will be around ¥600 -
less than half what you'd pay in a local
shop. It will take them around a week to
make.
Suzhou Cobblers
苏州鞋匠
sū zhōu xié jiàng
Room 101, 17 Fuzhou Lu
W
www.suzhou
-cobblers.com. See map, p.51.
Hand-embroi-
dered slippers, bags and hand-knitted
children's clothing in charming traditional
designs. A pair of embroidered slippers is
around ¥500.
Yanye Shoe Studio
言业制鞋
yán yè zhì xié
893 Huashan Lu, near Fuxing Xi Lu. See map,
pp.70-71.
Made-to-order shoes, very reason-
ably priced, starting at ¥400 or so. Choose
the material from a range of leathers and
plastics, and details such as depth of heel
and finish. You'll have to wait twenty days
before they're finished.
Discounts and factory overstock
Forget the bad-quality counterfeit
designer gear in the fake markets - if
you know where to look, you can get
the real thing for not much more. Just
about all the world's textile produc-
tion has moved to China, and it's
141
