Women shopping for top-grade American and British ready-made clothing
should have a look at Mackintosh’s in Alexandra House, Paquerette (in the
Gloucester Arcade), Lane, Crawford’s, and Whiteaway Laidlaw & Co. A wide
range of high-style tailored clothing for women is offered by Charlotte
Horstmann of Duddell Street and Town and Country of Queen’s Road, both on
the Hong Kong side, and at three Kowloon shops in the arcade of the Hotel
Peninsula: Dynasty Salon, Betty Clemo, and Star of Siam.
Men’s tailoring shops are most numerous on the Kowloon side, and many of
them also make women’s clothing. A sample survey might include Y. William
Yu and Frank L. Chan of Kimberley Road, Ying Tai & Co., and Harilela’s of
Nathan Road, James S. Lee & Co. of Nathan Road (and Gloucester Road, Hong
Kong), and Tailor Young & Co. of Humphreys Avenue. In the blocks from
Mody Road to Kimberley Road, all branching east from Nathan Road, tailors
seem to occupy about every third storefront. Take nothing for granted at
any of them, and be watchful to see that the cloth ordered is supplied.
Hong Kong has outstanding bargains in hand-made shoes, handbags, jewelry,
watches, cameras, radios and furniture. It is desirable to know prices
and to shop around extensively, comparing values. The Man Yee Building,
previously mentioned, the Gloucester Arcade, and the arcades of the
Ambassador and Miramar Hotels in Kowloon should give an idea of what’s
available, though they may be undersold by some side-street shop.
Kowloon has dozens of small shops, often combined with back-room
“factories,” where one can buy Chinese handicrafts or watch them being
turned out by superlative craftsmen. These products are duplicates
of those that China has produced for centuries, and may require a
Comprehensive Certificate of Origin to get them through U.S. Customs.
Hankow Road, just west of the Hotel Peninsula, has the greatest number
of wood-carving shops. They all stock sets of wooden horses in several
sizes; also Buddhas, Gods and Goddesses in profusion, wild animals, fish
and birds. The asking price is outrageous, but can be whittled down as
much as 50 percent by patient haggling. A well-made carved horse about
four inches high can be bought for 75 cents. It would cost six times as
much in New York.
No other article more convincingly demonstrates the skill of the Chinese
craftsman than carved ivory. There are ivory factories along Nathan
Road and its side streets that produce beautifully carved chess sets,
intricately fashioned concentric balls of ivory, and miniature temples,
flower boats and pagodas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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