Sourced: The Tailor's Market

I'm a big fan of the malls in Shanghai -- the ones in which all the stores are selling generally the same thing. Rather than question the commercial viability of selling the exact same thing as the person next door, I’ve come to really embrace the hive mind mentality of these little markets. It's nice to think of areas of the city as specializing in a certain item only; there's an over-arching level of organization that I've come to understand, accept, and live by. (Have you seen the trophy and flag district down by the Bund?)

Out of all the markets, though, my favorite is the Tailor's Market right next to Old Town.





One goes to the fabric market to get a winter jacket made or a few dresses copied. The vendors at the Tailor's Market, however, are only selling you the accessories you need to complete your stuff on your own. Go here if you're looking to get really serious with DIY fashion. A Project Runway contestant’s wet dream, the Tailor's Market is a massive grouping of vendors selling every fabric accessory you can think of: buttons, zippers, ribbons, pins, patches, tassels, baubles, feathers, glitter, sequins, leather, lace, felt, fur, buckles, snaps, and more, more, more. It's like God’s sewing kit.





Even if you're not in fashion design or into making your own clothes, The Tailor's Market is still a pretty incredible place just to visit. The sheer abundance of items and minute variety is fascinating -- reams and reams of lace, ribbon and felt, buckets of buttons, snaps, and buckles, books and books of patches. The mind races with possible fashion disasters that could be constructed with the materials available. As your walking throughout the place, keep an eye out for small, unassuming stalls with clothing labels pinned on to a board. These guys copy designer labels for you. If you give them a label you want, they can duplicate it. Make your own fakes!





It's a standard market deal and buyers are bargaining for everything. It would be chaotic and hectic if it weren't surreal, but no one is bugging you to look at their stuff or touting their prices because the market is mainly for people in the trade.





All in all, great source for fashion basics. When you're there, walk in, turn right, last stall in the first block. The elderly Chinese guy sitting in a kiosk with 9,000 buttons. That's my buttons guy. Tell him I said hi. You can't believe the kind of perspective you get on life when you have your own buttons guy.



The first two floors are the Tailor's Market. Floors three, four, and five sell bags and suitcases only. Seriously.

Address: 388 Ren Min Lu / 上海市人民路388号上海滩商厦