There is no agent in Hong Kong for high-end shirt fabrics, and access across the region is harder than it is Europe or the US. As a result, Ascot Chang has a lot of cloth.
We went to visit them in Hong Kong recently because, while I’ve known Justin and his father for many years, we’ve only ever visited the shops, rather than the production. We could have spent many hours in that cloth room.
Historically, it was common for tailors and shirtmakers to have large rolls of cloth on site. But as costs have been cut over the years, the stock has dwindled and now the vast majority of orders are made from swatches. It’s hard not to feel this has made customers less connected to fabric, and reduced the understanding of it.
Ascot Chang has almost 6000 rolls on site, but even they can’t afford to have rolls in their shops or at trunk shows – so we were fortunate to be able to visit and browse through everything.
I eventually asked to use a pink stripe for a new commission. Patterned fabrics like this are ones I increasingly turn to – they give some interest when worn without a tie, but aren’t bold enough to make wearing with a patterned tie that difficult.
Ascot Chang make and sell their own shirts of course (and have had a shop in New York for a long time) but they also work with other brands, including The Armoury and Bryceland’s. Like their fellow Hongkonger WW Chan, this has pushed them in some new directions in terms of both style and cloth.
Sitting in the middle of the floor in Ascot’s cloth room, for example, was a roll of heavy buffalo-check wool, which has been used for Bryceland’s in the past. Other materials like rayon and terry cloth are similarly unusual.
Most of the fabrics are twills and poplins though, and the key thing that catches your eye is colour. When I visited I was actually wearing a shirt in a lilac fabric from Thomas Mason, which I would never have gone for that if I hadn’t seen something similar made up at Ralph Lauren. Swatches would not have been enough.
Ascot may not have rolls of fabric in its stores, but it does at least have shirts made up – which makes it easier to have confidence in new colours or patterns. Browsing the bolts at the factory made me reassess stronger blues, ginghams, and some interesting stripes.
Ascot Chang makes a very good machine-made garment. They don’t do hand-attached collars and sleeves like the Italians we cover, but their strength is consistency and value. The brands I know that work with them always praise these points, and when I had some shirts made with them back in 2018, I found the same.
Interestingly, Ascot does still offer hand-sewn buttons and buttonholes, but customers rarely ask for them. “It was a bit of a trend I think, perhaps 10 years ago,” says Justin (above). “These days we find people care less about those things.”
For a manufactured shirt, the things to watch out for are elements like fine stitching and pattern matching, and Ascot also do some very nice hand embroidery.
One of my other favourite things we saw in the workshop was the thread ‘bible’ – a book the staff have put together over the years showing which threads are used for which fabrics, so that if a customer uses the same fabric many years later, the same thread is used with it (below).
Ascot has a lot of heritage when it comes to shirtmaking – something it’s easy to assume is only found in Europe. Justin’s grandfather trained as a shirtmaker in Shanghai in the 1940s, before moving to Hong Kong in 1951 and opening his first store (in Tsim Sha Tsui, on the Kowloon side) in 1953.
His father opened the store in New York in 1986, and they now also have a second shop in Hong Kong, one in Shanghai, a franchise in the Philippines and many trunk shows around the world. They offer a little tailoring, largely because of a historic friendship with a tailor in New York.
Despite the retail presence, 70% of the Ascot business is still bespoke, all going through the one desk and manager here in Hong Kong. The size of that bespoke operation is clear from the pattern room (below).
The team did manage to find my pattern from back in 2018 among all those racks, and we looked at the differences between that and the most recent shirt Ascot made me, which had been through Bryceland’s (covered here last year).
They had also made me a fitting shirt in a basic white cloth, which was thoughtful, so we were able to conduct a quick fitting at the factory and will make a shirt in that striped pink poplin.
I’ll try and cover this new shirt when it’s ready, as Ascot really are a good option for readers to consider, particularly as people tend away from wanting so much handwork.
The Ascot stores can be seen on their website here. Trunk shows are currently in 10 different countries – details here. A bespoke shirt in New York starts at $380, in Hong Kong H$2150 and in London $280 (taxes and duties included in the others, but not London).
The shirt pictured on me is by Luca Avitabile, a fine oxford weave from Thomas Mason – the Cambridge quality, code FM33854. The suit is from Assisi, covered here.
