Yaly Good Times

A tailoring experience worth a trip to Vietnam

August 20, 2007—In the Vietnamese town of Hoi An, a few doors down from the Vinh Hung hotel (where Michael Caine set up his dressing room while shooting The Quiet American) sits Yaly Couture. A full-service suit- and shirt-maker housed in a former mansion, it's one of three (soon to be four) Yaly storefronts in this idyllic port town—and possibly reason enough to book a trip to Vietnam. (Though it bears noting that the rest of the country's pretty hospitable these days, too.) While prices run three times those of local competitors—expect to pay a whopping $75 per suit and upwards of $10 for a dress shirt—such extravagance nets you top-notch, on-site hand-tailoring, plus next-day turnaround and as many fittings as you need. That last bit is something you may find yourself taking advantage of, given that—in a stroke of true sartorial innovation—the front-of-house staff is exclusively female. Instead of the usual snooty manager and his geriatric sidekick with a well-worn tape measure and brusque manner, at Yaly a well-trained crew of saleswomen do everything from serve drinks to help you select fabrics to, yes, measure your inseam. No offense to our friends in Naples or on Savile Row, but that sounds like an idea worth some serious study.

Yaly Couture, 47 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hoi An, Vietnam, 011-84-510-910-474; 47 Tran Phu, Hoi An, Vietnam, 011-84-510-861-119; 580 Cua Dai, Hoi An, Vietnam, 011-84-510-914-997; 358 Nguyen Duy Hieu, Hoi An, Vietnam, 011-84-510-914-995 (opening in October); www.yalycouture.com