Cloth Alley Offers Visitors a Selection of Inexpensive Fabrics

Hong Kong manufactures much of the world’s clothing. In hundreds of small factories that operate almost around the clock, top designer labels are stitched into otherwise anonymous suits, shirts and dresses. And hundreds of tailors toil day and night to satisfy customers who want a new wardrobe made-to-order to take with them when they leave.

Hong Kong’s bustling garment industry has an important underpinning: fabrics. The Crown colony is one of the world’s best (most abundant and least expensive) fabrics markets.

Much of the selling, wholesale and retail, takes place on Wing On Street, otherwise known as Cloth Alley.

This narrow corridor extends from Des Voeux Road to Queen’s Road (in the Central District). It is lined with shops offering fabrics by the yard or the bolt. Cloth Alley shops have one of the world’s biggest selections of fabrics, everything from fine silks to heavy upholstery fabrics, from woolen worsteds to inexpensive cottons.

Cloth Alley is a must for anyone who wants to have clothes made-to-order in Hong Kong. This is where Hong Kong tailors buy the fabrics they sell to you.

In buying them for yourself, you get a broader selection and better price. When selecting fabrics for use at home, take along swatches of fabrics you want to match, or color wheels of paints. Cloth Alley prices are about half the amount you’d pay for similar merchandise at home.

Explore Stores First

Breeze through Cloth Alley or spend hours exploring various stores, but do walk the length of the alley before you single out a shop. The narrow, stall-like shops are stocked floor to ceiling with bolts of fabrics.

Fronts of the shops are completely open; display wheels with colorful fabrics attract passers-by. Stores look alike, but textures and colors have subtle variations that distinguish superb fabrics from so-so ones.

Some vendors invite you to do business by shouting greetings or come-ons, others sit quietly and wait for you to express an interest in their wares. One attitude might have more appeal for you, but manner doesn’t make much difference when it comes to talking terms.

Bargaining, a key factor in determining price, is an essential part of the fabric of business life in Cloth Alley.

After you’ve negotiated the first quoted price down to the “best price,” ask the salesperson to give you his or her business card with the best price noted on it. With card in hand, you do some comparison shopping.

You’ll have a record of what you saw, where you saw it and for how much. Otherwise it might be difficult to find that shop again, and, if you do, to get the same best price.

The following list of some of the best stores is arranged with high street numbers first. Cloth Alley’s high numbers are closest to Des Voeux Road (a short walk from the ferry):

Good General Store

Lun Wah Piece Goods (No. 40) is a good general store selling a variety of types of fabrics at prices that are often below those of other shops here. For example, the asking price on double velvets is $8 a yard compared to $11 a yard at Sun Wah, though Sun Wah has a bigger selection of colors and, with bargaining, its price was reduced to $7 a yard.

Lun Wah’s pure wool herringbones and other tweeds cost about $10.25 a yard, heavy cotton weaves about $5.75 a yard, pretty silks for dresses or shirts about $7 a yard. The shop also sells exotic fabrics for evening attire: velvets with iridescent prints that look like mother-of-pearl cost about $14 a yard, silks with silver tiger prints $6.40, those with sprays of star-like sparkles $5.75.

Dah On Piece Goods (No. 39) has more than 1,000 bolts of suiting fabrics, mostly English imports in grays and dark blues. Woolen pin stripes sell for about $20 a yard, mink and cashmere blends are about $24 and gray worsteds about $36.50.

Dozens of Patterns

Hing Kee Co. (No. 30) has cottons for dressmaking and home decorating. You’ll see dozens of patterns, including hearts, daisies and other flowers, strawberries, polka dots and plaids. Many are available in reverse colors (red on white and white on red, for example) for interesting styling. Pure cottons average about $1.30 a yard, cotton and polyester blends about $1. Some of the fabrics are suitable for shirting.

Fashion Fabrics Co. (No. 29) sells silks in vibrant solid colors and plaids. Raw silk costs about $3 a yard, Jacquard sells for $7, crepe de Chine about $4.50. Most are in 45-inch widths.

The shop also features hand-woven Indian cotton upholstery fabrics in 55-inch widths for $7 a yard, plus Australian and U.S. upholstery cottons with screened patterns of leaves for $4.50 or flowers for $4.10 to $7. Laura Ashley look-alike prints in 44-inch widths are $2.80 a yard.

Kark Peih Piece Goods (No. 28) sells thick 45-inch-wide velvets in dozens of colors for $9.60 a yard.

Four Seasons Piece Goods Co. (No. 27) sells textured cottons, mostly imported from India, in a wild assortment of colors and patterns. Upholstery fabrics that look like Monet paintings cost $6 a yard, a menagerie of animal prints $5.80, 56-inch wide florals cost $5.15 a yard and other heavy cottons sell for as little as $3.50. The shop also has some beautiful pastel cotton and silk blends for $6.15.

Fabarics for Suits

Kinson Woolen Co. Ltd. (No. 26) specializes in men’s suiting fabrics imported from England and Italy. A fabric sample book and many men’s fashion magazines are convenient aids to selection.

Most fabrics are in 58-inch widths: English wool gabardines are $14 a yard, vicuna cashmeres $33 a yard, wool serge is $16, Italian mink and cashmere blend herringbones $30 a yard and silk and wool blend herringbones $40. Pure wools are $23.

The shop’s fabulous English mink and cashmere pin stripes would be right at home on Savile Row. They sell for $36 a yard, a fraction of their cost in London.

Lightweight Cottons

Ah She Piece Goods (No. 25) features lightweight cottons for shirts. Many colors and patterns in 45-inch widths sell for $1.80 a yard. The shop also carries heavyweight cottons in solid colors and patterns for trousers, dresses or home decorating. Prices start at $1.90 a yard.

The World Piece Goods Co. (No. 23) offers a good selection of all weights of corduroys and lightweight velvets in a palette of colors. Prices for 36-inch wide corduroys begin at $2, velvets at $4 a yard.

Kui Kee Piece Goods Co. (No. 20) sells flannels for about $20 a yard in 60-inch widths. English woolens in tartans, plaids and solid colors cost about $15 a yard in 60-inch widths.

A Pastel Rainbow

Ying Cheong Co. (No. 17) specializes in high-quality cotton shirting fabrics. The interior of the shop looks like a pastel rainbow, with blues, grays, pinks, yellows and creams separated by dozens of delicate stripes and plaids. Pure cottons imported from England sell for $5.30 to $7 a yard in 36-inch widths. Japanese cotton-polyester blends are $2.30 a yard in 42-inch widths.

Sun Wah Piece Goods (No. 9) has a wide range of soft, richly colored double velvets. With only a minor effort at bargaining, the tag on 60-inch deep maroon heavy velvet was reduced from $11 to $7 a yard.

Kwong Kwong Co. (No. 3) has varieties of solid colored and pinstriped lightweight woolens and heavy cottons for summer suits and trousers. Most of the fabrics are 60 inches wide and range from $6.15 to $7 a yard. Buy 10 yards or more to get the price 5% to 10% lower.

Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing .