What Ascot Chang is known for

Ascot Chang has made bespoke shirts in Hong Kong since 1953. Its founder opened a 600 square foot shop on Kimberley Road that year after years of taking orders door to door. The house now cuts shirts and full-canvas suits to measure from Landmark Prince's in Central, with further shops in Shanghai and New York and inside Rustan's in Makati. Trunk shows have run since a first American tour in 1967.

Ascot Chang left his hometown of Fenghua at fourteen to apprentice under a master shirtmaker in Shanghai. In 1949 he moved to Hong Kong, where he took orders for custom shirts door to door from Shanghainese businessmen. By 1953 he had opened his first shop, 600 square feet at 34 Kimberley Road. A branch followed at the Peninsula Hotel in 1963. When the 1967 riots hurt sales he took the business on the road, visiting twenty American cities in three months on the firm's first trunk show. His son Tony Chang and brother Johnny Chang led the second generation. They opened the first overseas store in New York in 1986. Today the house cuts bespoke shirts from scratch to a client's measurements. Its bespoke suits take more than forty hours of handwork, including full canvas construction and hand-rolled lapels. The house style is continental, with light shoulder padding and a slim, professional line. Its Hong Kong shops are at Landmark Prince's on Chater Road in Central and at Elements Mall, with the Peninsula shop now closed. Further stores trade in Shanghai and Xiamen, in New York and inside Rustan's in Makati. Trunk shows continue to carry fittings across the United States.