"Does looser mean tighter in Vietnamese?"

The city of Hoi An, Vietnam is a custom clothiers dream. It boasts over 500 tailor shops to accommodate needs you didn't even know you had for garb. We paled around with Walid & Louise, a wonderful couple from California and decided to go on a shopping spree. With digital photos of boots, jackets, shirts and shorts, we hopped on bikes and cruised down to Impressions Clothing Shop. Lovely ladies greeted us with warm smiles and dollar signs in their eyes. Amazingly, they had just a quick glance at our photos and made sketches of our designer clothing. Man, these people are whizzes! And the clothes will be done this afternoon? Too good to be true.


After spending the day at the beautiful Hoi An Beach, we rode back ready to try on our clothes. Absolutely nothing fits correctly. They make chalk marks, slap us on our rears and tell us to come back in two hours. A guy on a motorbike rushes in, takes the clothes and rushes out. Two hours later, we're back. Noooope. We analyze one another and still nothing fits right. This shoulder is tweaked, this length is too short, these buttons are crooked. Andy had two dress shirts made, same measurements and completely different lengths and fits. Meanwhile, we shuffle back and forth across the street finagling for perfect fits with boots and shoes. What have we gotten ourselves into?! And how are we going to carry it?!


After the fourth fitting, we were all going a bit nuts. This shirt wasn't even changed! Why don't they write anything down? Is this finished? Eye yey yey. Brilliantly, Louise ran across the street to get us some Tiger Beers to ease the pain. Piles of clothes abound with no organization. Walid pokes his head around the curtain as he is trying on some pants and shouts, "Does looser mean tighter in Vietnamese?" It must.

Finally, after two and a half days and too many hours, the clothes fit. We walked away relatively happy with our custom clothes in a new duffel bag. They say time is money and it most certainly is.