Purple silk
(Tailored Chinese silk jacket: Suzhou, China)
My mum was making enquiries about her tailored jacket yesterday and I thought it was worthy of comment here. I attempted to take timed photographs of myself and these are the best offerings I have. Whilst she and Jane were in China, we took them to a famous silk shop in Suzhou. Many Chinese shops have a plaque outside recommending them as an ancient or established, trusted brand. As a place to consider having silk items made, a local friend pointed out this silk shop. Since mum and Jane seemed desperate to have a jacket made, we duly entered. From that point on, the journey was rather more complex.
First, they had to choose a design from the catalogues and books provided in the tailors, this took a very long time. There was much humming and hahing about many of the choices – and of course, they couldn’t possibly choose the same one. After that, the silk; they had to select a silk for the outside of the jacket – in this case a fuchsia peacock feather design – and another one for the lining. There was even a confusing discussion (translated by Ying) concerning the edge piping that you can see along the left hand edge of the jacket, along the collar. In the end, they both opted for having the same piping silk as their linings. They were also adamant that the fastenings should be made of this silk too. As you can see, the lining, buttons, cuffs and piping are all the same pale jade silk.
From the selection of silk, the ladies were looked at and the silk was cut to a size they deemed necessary for making jackets for them. Given a receipt, the customer must go to the cashier’s desk, hand over the money and one part of the receipt slip. After the silk had been paid for, the girls were finally measured and fitted for their jackets. At this point, they could now pay the tailoring costs – another trip to the cashier’s desk. It took one week for the jackets to be made up and they still haven’t seen the results – I’ll be handing them over this weekend, all being well. Hopefully my mum will be delighted with her peacock feather creation. If not, it fits me rather well anyway…
– Today Rosie is in Glasgow –
