Since 1963, at the same address
Hongkong Custom Tailors opened on Sardar Patel Road in 1963 and has traded from the same address ever since; The Black Lapel is the house it became. Three generations have cut here. The craftsmen who draft and finish your garment have, in many cases, been with us for decades, and the patterns of clients who first came in the 1970s are still on file.
A pattern drafted for you, not a block adjusted
Every commission starts with between eighteen and twenty-four measurements and a pattern drafted from them with no stock block underneath. That is what bespoke means here. The pattern is proved on a basted fitting in your own cloth, corrected, and proved again at a final fitting, and it stays on file so every later garment starts from a fit that is already yours.
The cloth: Zegna to Raymond, chosen in the hand
Close to ninety per cent of our suiting cloth is imported European: Ermenegildo Zegna, Holland & Sherry, Scabal, Dormeuil, Vitale Barberis Canonico and Roger La Viale, with Raymond for the entry tier. Shirtings from Thomas Mason, Alumo, Söktaş and D&J Anderson. Raw silk, dupion, brocade and velvet for ethnic wear. We read every cloth against the hour and the venue it will be worn in, and steer you to the weaves that survive a Chennai afternoon.
The range: from a working suit to a wedding wardrobe
Suits, tuxedos and morning coats; jackets and blazers; trousers; shirts; overcoats; womenswear; and the full Indian ethnic wardrobe, sherwani, achkan, bandhgala, Nehru jacket, bandi, kurta, churidar and Jodhpuri suit. Price tiers run from an Indian mill wool, half-canvassed, to Super 150s from Zegna or Scabal with full canvas and hand-finishing; the pricing page explains what moves the number and the catalogue lists every garment with its lead time and fittings.
Who we serve, and from where
All of Chennai and its suburbs, every city in Tamil Nadu, South India, the rest of India, and NRI clients visiting Chennai. Clients travel to Adyar from Coimbatore and Bangalore and we plan fittings around their trips. Measurements are taken on a visit to Adyar; outstation and NRI clients plan two visits, one to measure and choose cloth and one to fit, and we schedule the fittings around their trips. By appointment, Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 9 pm.