January 2015

We’re not sure what’s more difficult; choosing a Ha Long Bay tour company in Hanoi or a custom tailor shop in Hoi An. There is an overwhelming plethora of providers of each and even Tripadvisor makes choosing the right one difficult. We trusted fellow travel bloggers, Hannah and Adam of Getting Stamped as they had a great recommendation for Ha Na, so we thought we’d give them a shot.

The majority of tailors seem to reach right for your wallet before even asking what you are looking for, but this was NOT the case at Ha Na.

Mai, who greeted us initially, asked us if we wanted to sit down and take a look through her catalogues to help decide what we wanted, while never putting any pressure on us. In fact, the first day we had a quick look and left, with no pressure to return from the lovely ladies.

The next day we were back and got started on our orders. Our purchases looked something like this:

I guess we’ll have to go back to work now!

We made four visits to Ha Na in total from the original measurements, choosing of materials including fabric, buttons, liners and even stitching patterns. The ladies are as patient as we are particular. Mai is a confident little thing and wasn’t afraid to tell us when we were being unreasonable, even when she knew we’d be spending some money with her. ‘Come on man’ she said when I wanted my jacket pockets adjusted, ‘impossible’, she said. Yet the next day, pockets were adjusted and her customer happy. I’m pretty sure she even gave me a slap on the behind at one point.

The whole family has a hand in the business. All of the ladies work the shop as well as tailor the clothes, however, their brother works diligently behind the scenes creating the finished product. Ha Na is conveniently located right in the centre of Hoi An at 85 Tran Hung Dao St. 

Below we highlight our amazing experience with Ha Na in pictures. If you are trying to decide on a tailor in Hoi An, we can vouch for Mai and her team. Again, nothing to compare our experience to, however I don’t think we ever will.

jess + trickett