The Prestigious Bespoke

The Prestigious Bespoke is run by Thomas Wong, a Singapore master tailor who has served as chairman of the Singapore Master Tailor Association and president of the Federation of Asian Master Tailors. The shop's own materials date its lineage to 1966; a 2016 profile in The Peak Magazine, written when Wong was 69, noted he had by then spent five decades in tailoring, consistent with a mid-1960s start, though the profile itself doesn't independently confirm that exact year. His earlier shop operated out of Shaw Centre for 13 years before the mall closed for major renovation in 2012, after which the business relocated to its current studio at Boat Quay. All bespoke garments are made in-house by a small team — around six tailors and apprentices — with no outsourcing, a point Wong makes of distinguishing the shop from more common industry practice. Around 2012, Wong established a menswear tailoring course at LASALLE College of the Arts, where he lectures, and most of his current team are graduates of that program; his stated succession plan is to hand work to trained protégés rather than close the business when he steps back.