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Hoi An, The tailor city

A tape measure in one hand, the latest issue of a well-known French fashion magazine in the other; the noise of whirring sewing machines in the background: the American tourist, in perfect English, is invited to try on a woolen coat – although the outside temperature is above 30 degrees – and assured that “it can be made in different colors and sizes”. Daily scenes in one of the many fashion boutiques in Hoy An, the city of tailors. Halfway between Saigon and Hanoi, on the coast of the China Sea, Hoy An is one of the main tourist stops in Vietnam; its historical center – declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1999 and one of the best preserved in Vietnam – offers a rich mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and European architecture, with influences dating back to the 16th century. Of that glorious past today rests the ancient merchant’s palaces and a lively entrepreneurial spirit, which in the last few years has given life to dozens of fashion tailor shops. Mannequins, dressed in thousands of different colors and materials, line the sleepy streets: in every shop window, a family-run tailor shop is able to create any sort of outfit with the best quality material in one night. An opportunity which the many passing tourists don’t miss: practically everyone goes home with a made-to-measure outfit, made up in a few hours at a third of the price they would pay in their home town. But the tailors in Hoy An look ahead: they measure their client from top to bottom and write every detail down on enormous notepads, because their next order could arrive from the other side of the world via mail. © ALESSANDRO GRASSANI

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