One of my favorite things to do in China is go to the fabric market. On Saturday I went to the Shanghai South Bund Material Market and got fitted for some clothes. I found a good place, made friends with the girl that worked there, and am looking forward to picking up my items next week.
Here are the details:
Shanghai South Bund Soft Spinning Material Market
No. 399 LiuJiaBang Road
I recommend going to “Yi Tian Ting”, which is on the third floor near the escalator, No. 383. The English speaker there is Ki Ki, and she is really nice and helpful (and quite the salesperson!).
In Chinese：
上海市南外滩轻纺面料市场
地址：陆家浜路399号
(我推荐3楼383号）
In the market, you can expect to pay about 90RMB for a shirt. For the suits, the prices vary a bit because of the different fabrics. Try to bargain as low as you can. I was able to get a nice suit and three pairs of pants for about 900RMB or so (about 200 Sing Dollars), which is pretty damn good.
There are other markets, but this is the most popular. They have a lot of foreign clients, so most of them can speak English, no problem. Chinese always helps, but it is still worth going if you want to get tailored clothes.
For the timing, it really depends on how busy they are. You need some time for them to make it, and then a day or two after in case there are any problems.
