The Fabric Market

The Fabric Market on Luijiabang Lu and Zhongshan Lu is amazing; three floors of wool, linen, cotton and most importantly, SILK. The Fabric Market is the best place to go to have suits, silk dresses and everything else imaginable made especially for your body at a low price. Why is it so low? Well, that is the beauty of bargaining.

Saturday afternoon, I went to the market with my friend Olivia, and we spent about two hours walking around the different shops. It is definitely a worthwhile experience - and when you find something that appeals to you, it is an even better experience. Both Olivia and I wanted to look for dresses and I desparately wanted a silk top. Searching for ideas isn't too difficult, many shops inside the market display clothes for people to sort of have an idea of what they are looking for.

The best part about the fabric market, in my opinion, would be trying on clothes, bargaining and scrambling to find the right phrases in Chinese. Most people in the fabric market speak basic English - you like? you want to buy? dresses? pants? - but there are certain phrases that you wouldn't think you'd need to know until you are there. I was so proud of myself when I was trying on a silk top and the woman asked me what pattern I wanted - all I knew is that I didn't want a bunch of flowers. Floral is nice, but not for me. Olivia told me to get a solid color and I surprisingly remembered "yi se", which means one color. The woman quickly pointed me to the right area of solid colors and I was like, "Wahoo, I rule!"

Trying on clothes is a very interesting procedure to say the least. There are the wannabe dressing rooms - a pole going from wall to wall with a curtain hanging from it. But for the most part, Chinese women hold some old sheet of fabric in front of you. Finally, the third option, customers basically put clothes over what they are already wearing in the halls. I experienced the last two. It's kind of fun. When I was trying on a top, this woman, who was holding up my "dressing room", checked to see if I was ready and I was definitely still in my bra and I said, "Hey now, no look." We both just smiled and moved on, but it was fun giving her a hard time. When I found the dress I wanted I told some woman, "me, try on", and she took it off the manaquin, handed it to me, and that was it - no curtain, no fabric, just right there in the hallway with everyone watching. Fun stuff. Nah, it wasn't bad at all. I just pulled the dress over my clothes and looked in the mirror. The hard part, however, was taking off the straps of my tanktop and bra. The dress was strapless so in order to get the full-effect, no straps are a must.

After having decided on the items you want, purchasing is relatively standard in every shop you go to in the market. There is a deposit - usually 100 or 200 yuan - and the vendors will ask you if you want your clothes ready in seven or 10 days. Both Olivia and I said one week so we will be going there again on Saturday, which is pretty exciting.

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Part of trip: Shanghai Business Review Internship

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