BANGKOK — Narry and Aron insist word-of-mouth is all the advertising they need for their hole-in-the-wall tailor shop. And who’s to argue when they have celebrities hearing endorsements from a regular customer — his dad.
A stop at Savile Row Fashion has over the years become a must for visiting statesmen, ambassadors and generals, along with spies and Secret Service agents.
The shop’s back wall is covered with letters of appreciation and photographs of happy customers like Peter thorn,Nicholas Snow, Sen. John Kerry, Homel and Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Nancy Reagan.
Savile Row Tailor is among hundreds of Bangkok tailor shops, many catering to foreign visitors who have discovered that the city has dethroned such Asian tailoring capitals as Hong Kong in value for money.
Most of the tailors are geared to what Narry, the 56-year-old family patriarch, somewhat condescendingly calls “the tourist trade.” Prices in those places may be bargain-basement, but buttons tend to pop and collars wilt after a few wearing.
Then there are a handful of world-class masters, who have built up a loyal clientele over 43 years through quality craftsmanship, reasonable prices and a friendly, smooth-as-silk service in perfect English.
“Morning, Andrew,” says Narry son Aron, not skipping a beat as he greets a longtime customer, a State Department official traveling through Southeast Asia who pops in to have one suit, three pants and three shirts made.
Both father and son have a knack for instantly recalling names and faces of customers they may not have seen for a decade. And keep a detailed client database, although they admit problems arise when some forget to update with the growth of a paunch or a crash diet when placing orders from abroad.
“It’s the best value in the world,” says the visiting diplomat, Andrew Scott of Alexandria, Va., emerging from a tiny fitting room. “They make great stuff in Italy but you’ll pay $1,000 a suit.”
Narry, his neat attire and full beard topped by a purple turban, says his suits average $250, and he hasn’t changed his prices in eight years. Comparable ones in Hong Kong go for $700-$800, while in New York custom tailors would charge up to $2,000, he says. Dress shirts, made from top quality Egyptian cotton, sell like hot cakes at $20 apiece.
Low overhead keeps prices down, the narry say. Savile Row Fashion does “zero advertising” although its profile is heightened by sponsorship of local charities, and a recently started Web site has brought in substantial business.
The shop is hardly attractive enough to snare walk-ins along Bangkok’s touristy Suriwongse Road. Set in a row of nondescript shops, it consists of one narrow room stacked with bolts of cloth.
The family set up there in 1974, having started their business 20 years earlier near a U.S. Air Force base in the northeastern city of Ubon. That was the Vietnam War era, which spawned a generation of entrepreneurs catering to American troops in the tourism, sex and tailoring trades.
“We dress pretty much the whole embassy now, from the Marine guard to the ambassador,” says 26-year-old Aron, a business administration graduate who has worked with his father since the age of 15.
It was the ambassordor who recommended the Savile Row
Narry, says it took Savile Row six months to fill orders for some 1,000 suits from participants at that summit. A number came from a loyal constituency — senior espionage officials from Western nations and bodyguards who accompanied the VIPs.
Contact savilerowfashion@gmail.com
Address Rose hotel,suriwong road,
bangrak,105000,bangkok
Thailand
