Vaish Tailors is Over-Rated!

jcskinner

Sounds like the very thing, Prof.
I was sort of thinking of getting fitted up, vanishing to Goa for most of a week, then returning to Mumbai for a final fitting and to collect a suit or two.
I assume that would give them enough time?

indiaprof

If you're clear that it needs to be done in a week, they can probably manage it, but you'll need to get in for your fabric selection and fitting ASAP on arrival. I'm sure they have a Raymonds in Goa. You might want to ask someone on the forum if they've worked with them, though. I find that Raymonds' quality varies depending on the location. Ernakulam and Bangalore good, Chennai bad. Have no idea about Goa.

jcskinner

I come back through Mumbai again on my way out of the country, so there'd always be the option of giving them that further period of time to complete the work.
Thanks for the suggestion, Prof. I'll drop into them before I head south.

indiaprof

I would imagine that Mumbai, being Mumbai, you can get a really NICE suit there. I've never tried myself, since I usually only stay in Mumbai for a few days.

jcskinner

I got some lovely suits done in Hong Kong about 18 months ago, but I noticed that all the tailors there are of Indian extraction.
So I'm holding out high hopes for getting a nice suit in India.

Boston_Harry

Man, so I paid $50+ for each shirt there. Man, I got fleeced.

Oh well, the shirts were worth $40 in the USA, and so the total loss is only $20 total for both of the shirts.

I'm so surprised that a very polished man like Sachin Vaish, GM of Vaish Tailors, would rip me off like that. Darn.

captain bruce

I can recommend Reid and Taylor in Mumbai. Pricey but good. I have had 2 suits made up at Vaish and like them. Good quality 120 wool and properly finished. I remember that I paid about £200 for each one. You need to spend time specifying exactly what you want done - as with any tailor and you need to spend money on the cloth itself. I probably did get over-charged but so what - i got it a lot cheaper than UK prices.
Shirts are a different matter - Brit ones are far better value wise - even though they are probably still made in india....

svaish

Dear Harry,

I am the managing partner of VAISH AT RIVOLI. We get a reasonable amount of business from good posts about us on the internet and hence I was quite troubled to see your post about your dissatisfaction with our product. I wrote two emails to you at the email id I have from your order with us, but since you didn't respond, I'm wondering if you don't use that email or if you chose not to respond. Here is the email that I sent to you. I would appreciate your response:-
Dear Mr.P.Ramachandran/ Harry,

You had come to us in December and ordered some clothes from us, which we had later shipped to you. Just today I saw an India travel forum on the internet, where you had expressed your dissatisfaction with our product.

First, I am sorry that the trousers are not to your satisfaction at all and the shirts while acceptable, do not appear to be value for money to you. It can be frustrating when you have bought a particular product and it does not meet your satisfaction.

Second, I must say that I would have appreciated your offering us an opportunity to rectify or address the problems at least once before posting your comments on the internet. We are not fly by night operators who would not stand by our product and ignore a customer complaint. We have been in business at the same location for the past 70 odd years and have built a successful and prestigious business keeping a keen eye on customer satisfaction. Hence, had you mentioned this to us even once, we would have found feasible solutions for the problem. For eg, you could either send the trousers to us by post and we make the changes in your trousers and send them back at our own cost. We could even make you new ones and send them off to you. You must realize that the ideal way to make bespoke tailored clothes is by allowing the tailor a second fitting and hence giving a chance to check the final product for fit before getting it.

Allow me to explain some of the other issues to you:

The insides of the trousers are different from ready to wear trousers like Banana Republic. That is because they are meant to look like hand tailored pants, not machine tailored, one of ten thousand range. The rubber strips inside serve the function of shirt grips – they actually grip your shirt and discourage it from hanging out. Over a period of wear on that trouser, you may notice that difference. Regarding the 2.5” hem at the bottom - this hem is a classic tailor’s hem made by hand done blind stitching. The advantage is that your tailored trousers have margin in there to be lengthened at a later date, if need be and your Banana Republic pants probably do not. This hem also serves the function of making the trousers look hand-tailored. Connoisseurs of tailoring actually demand from us that the hem is made this way. They will say that other wise they may as well have bought a pair off-the-shelf from Banana Republic or similar !

I read replies on your post on the indiamike.com forum. With all due respect to everyone, I feel that the way other people are responding to the price you paid, they have a different expectation from tailoring in India than what we are offering. We offer a premium hand tailored product, meant to please a person who already is, or aspires to be a connoisseur of hand tailoring and understands and appreciates or would like to learn about the differences between bespoke and off the shelf clothes. However, the people replying to these posts are perhaps expecting to get clothes tailored to actually save money over ready to wear clothes. The shirts that we made for you are from fine, mostly 2 ply, high count cotton from reputed international mills like Albini, Monti, Brembana, Arvind, and others. They are not from the single ply, low count cotton or sometimes polyester blends that tailors who give you shirts for $10 - $25 offer you. Our shirts are also stitched with the highest quality Japanese and German machines. When you receive your shirts from M.Ram and sons, I request you to just compare the button holes of our shirts with theirs and I think you may be able to tell the difference. The buttons we have given you on your shirts should be real mother of pearl buttons as opposed to polyester buttons from cheaper shirts. These buttons alone cost us about $5-8 extra on each of your shirts. There are similar differences in the quality of interlinings in your collars and cuffs and most other “trims” used in your shirts. Most cheap tailors use the basic low quality local machines, threads, interlining, buttons etc. I must tell you that it is our constant endeavor to make a product comparable or better than a product from a similar tailor’s establishment in the developed world. I can also guarantee you that a similar service and product would be at least 50%-100% more expensive there, if not much more.

Having given you all of the above clarifications, I must say that if you at first didn’t appreciate our product, we have to understand your expectations and realize that a lot of customers are likely to have similar expectations as yours. We value your feedback and must address some of your concerns like tailor’s chalk marks, possibly too traditional looking insides of the garment etc. I agree that improvement in overall presentation of our garment will help improve its acceptability and perceived value from our customers.

As a plan of action, I request you to take 3 pictures of yourself wearing the trousers (front, back and side views) and send the pictures to us along with your trousers at the address mentioned below. We will rectify or replace your trousers and send them back to you at our cost.

Once you are satisfied, I also request you to post a reply to your post of “Vaish tailors is over rated” informing people of the fact that we stood by our product. The next time you pass by New Delhi, it would be my pleasure to host you for a drink or dinner and we could sit and chat about why you can get a shirt for $9 as well as for $900 within a one mile radius, what the differences between them are, and why they can both be value for money, albeit for different people.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will give us a chance to meet your expectation.

Thanks & best regards,
SACHIN VAISH
Managing Partner
VAISH AT RIVOLI
25 Regal Building
Connaught Place
New Delhi 110001
India
info@vaish.com
tel:+91-11-41502525

AwayFromHome

Eloquent and well reasoned response!

If I could afford it, I'd definitely take my trade to you.

KABAARY

An excellent response from Vaish....very knowledgeable and polite.

svaish

Dear "Awayfromhome", I invite you and others on the forum to visit us and give us a chance to show you our product and service. I'm sure you can afford it - the bulk of our shirts are between $40 and $60 and our suits start at $300, though the floating canvas ones are usually $375 and up.

delhiwala

Dear Mr. Sachin,

Although, I am not your customer yet, But everytime I pass by, I always think, One day I'll buy my clothes from here.....

Although I appreciate your genuine concern about customer complaints and I must thank you for your very gentlemanly and explanatory message. But you can't make everyone happy........

We know what Vaish at Rivoli stands for.......

__________________
Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. - The Dhammapada

Haylo

It would be rather interesting if Boston Harry posted pictures of himself on here, wearing his new trousers.

Mr Vaish, I realise your concern on seeing this thread, and as someone who used to tailor historical reproductions of clothes, I was interested to see your response. I shall be be following this with interest.

__________________
The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful - E.E. Cummings, poet (1894-1962)

curtdfw

I have two suits, one blazer and assorted pants from Vaish (I lived in Delhi 2004-2008), love them all. I have a body that doesn't work well with off-the-rack (46 coat, 38-inch waist), so getting a proper fit was really a revelation. Yeah, it typically took three fittings and at least one delay, but the result was worth it. They even did a crunch delivery for my wedding suit in August '07.

The suit shops in Khan Market and most other places in Delhi will give you a pseudo-bespoke suit with fused linings, not a proper floating canvas. Compared to US suit prices, Vaish is an insanely great deal.

I tended to get shirts made at Khan Market, more due to convenience than anything. Consistency was a problem even with multiple orders from the same shop, so I tended to give them a proper-fitting shirt as a model and got much better results.

captain bruce

Go Sachin! All too often us foreigners bad mouth Indian enterprises and they dont have any comeback. Great response. I am saving up for my next visit