Suit Up!

When one walks around the "foreigner slum" of Itaewon (as one friend eloquently phrased it recently), one will notice a curious phenomenon. Everywhere, Korean gentlemen will ask you "custom-tailored suit?" I don't understand this business strategy. A suit is not an impulse purchase. When was the last time you said, "Oh, I hadn't considered it before, but I DO want to drop $400 on a whim." Furthermore, it's not like buying a bag of Doritos, which is the same whether you go to 7-11 or Safeway. Surely you wouldn't buy a suit from a guy you just met on the street.

Now, with James N. leaving soon, we decided we wanted suits, but not from any random guy who happens to know 3 words of English. We went with Bruce Jung at Dynasty, who came highly recommended by a couple of our friends. While we were there, a high-ranking UN officer at the DMZ was also getting a suit made, so we figured Bruce must be well respected.

The first time we went up, our measurements were taken and we selected styles and colors. James N. went with a striped dark grey. I chose a solid charcoal grey. We both went with three-piece suits because . . . well, if you need me to explain why, I don't want to be friends with you anymore. Cease reading my blog immediately.

The second week, they had just the bare bones of the suit for fitting. We were finally able to pick them up yesterday, just in time for the suit-themed holiday party. A nice touch was our names on the inside of the jackets . . . though mine ended in "sOn." D'oh.

Were the suits a success? You decide: