Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Hoi An is known for its tailor shops. It’s pretty popular amongst tourists and there are blocks and blocks of shops devoted to the trade. The general idea is, you show up with either your own idea or look through Pinterest when you arrive, choose your material, get your measurements done and then haggle on a price. Within the next 24-48 hours they’ll have your stuff ready for your first fitting where you can make any tweaks that you want or need. Everything is then ready to go the following day.

We made sure to visit a tailor our first day there so that we would have enough time to get a few pieces made. I had done a bit of thinking beforehand so went with a good idea of what I wanted – the same as last time though – I felt totally unprepared when we actually got there. I should have spent more time really considering what colours and fabrics or any tweaks I wanted from the pictures I had. The shops themselves are small, often busy and hot. The women are professional tailors and hustlers. It’s their job to get you in and out as quickly as possible, selling as many pieces for as much money as they can get.

After we decided on what we would all have made, got all our measurements done we wowed the girls with Madeline’s polaroid camera. She asked for a picture to be taken of the experience and the girls were so excited they asked for their own. There was literal squealing from these women. They now both have a picture of the girls tucked into their phone cases.

We returned to the shop a couple more times for our final fittings. The kids were always a big hit. They took several pictures out front with them and there were lots of hugs. In the end we had so many things made that we had to go searching for a new duffel – luckily they have gorgeous leather options to choose from ☺️