Lai’s Royal Tailoring

Mrs Yee is a very experienced tailor, good service and very reasonable price! Love her work!

Lai is a treasure! Such beautiful work, very reasonable rates and so sweet. I always look forward to seeing her.

Had a really great experience getting a bridesmaid dress taken in! Price was really fair considering there was boning and a few layers on the dress. $ 40 is a bargain in Manhattan and she did a fantastic job! She really cares about the work and last minute she made a few free minor adjustments to make it perfect and had them done in 15 minutes while I waited! Would come again in a heartbeat!

wonderful woman, great prices! will be back again and again.

Found a beautiful qi pao and qwa here at decent prices. The qi pao was $ 150 plus $ 30 for alterations and the qwa was $ 380 including alterations. Mrs. Yee is very attentive and detail-​oriented. I went for 1 fitting after alterations and am due back in Dec for another fitting to make sure the 2 outfits fit right. This is my go-​to place for alterations from now on. Mrs. Yee knows what she’s doing and makes alterations that are done better than professionals any where else! I dare to say she’s the best!

Lai Tailoring came highly recommended by a friend. The workmanship is excellent and my garments were ready on time, as promised.

I discovered Ms. Yu’s shop when every other tailor declined to adjust the sleeves on a jacket of mine. I thought it was no big deal and was surprised nobody wanted to do it and almost gave up but Ms. Yu took it in, explained why it was such a complex task (apparently the detail was very irregular) and did it quickly and inexpensively.
I’ve since taken everything to her. Pant seams are inexpensive and look great, patches are near-​invisible, etc. She’s also fun to chat with. Highly recommended!

All right, I’ll add some photos and maybe Unilocal will finally believe I’m a real customer.
I can’t believe I’ve known Yee Tai longer than I’ve known my fiancé, but the proof is in the ancient Unilocal review from 2009. She is my hero! I still go to her all the time but she just rescued a particularly special dream item: a vintage leopard-​print Valentino coat. I bought it on a consignment site, overnighted it, so excited, first time I try it on and –
RRRIIIPP
a foot-​long rip opens along the seam on the right sleeve. The shoulder basically exploded and can’t be repaired, the coat is too old, you can literally tear the leather with your hands like it’s paper.
I could have returned it but I knew the consignment site would have just thrown it away. So I took it to Yee Tai and she agreed to try to rescue it. We ended up detaching the ripped sleeve, inverting it, making both sleeves bracelet length and using the excess material from the «good» sleeve to patch the underside of the «bad» sleeve.
Just check the picture. AMAZING.

I had Lai tailor a baggy dress shirt for me. Even though I did not have an appointment, Lai was able to help me right away. I was very pleased with the fit and quality of work. She was friendly and professional both times and even offered to keep the shop open later so I could pick the shirt up after work. I thought $ 25 was a bit steep for a shirt, but to be fair the sleeves also had to be slimmed which increased the complexity of the job. Also, it is worth noting she asks you to pay up front which might rub some people the wrong way.

I had Mrs. Yee custom make a qipao for my wedding. I gave her a picture of what I had in mind that wasn’t a traditional qipao style; it had thin spaghetti straps and a high square neckline. When I went to the first fitting, I was really pleased with the tailoring and the design. Mrs. Yee was also very helpful and accommodating. I had to go for an extra fitting because at the last minute I decided to get different shoes and so she had to let down the hem again, but she happily did it for me. I had a great experience working with her, she is a highly-​skilled tailor. And at the wedding I received many compliments about my dress!

Lai is the best and nicest tailor in Chinatown. She can handle anything from small jobs to big jobs, and is extremely kind throughout the process! Although communication is not necessarily the easiest, she works through any potential difficulties to satisfy her customers.

Lai is incredible! She tailored my bridesmaid dress perfectly in time for a destination wedding! She is nice, gives you the price up front, and the price is fair. I work in apparel production, so I know what things should cost.
I will definitely be bringing the dress to her after the wedding to shorten it for everyday wear!

Other than a little bit of a language barrier, I was very happy with her work. She opened up a pair of pants for me, and she did a ver nice job, and her price was competitive. I used New York Tailor on Kennmare street, and she did better work at a lower price.

I took a maxi dress here to shorten, cost $ 22. Not very cheap, but much cheaper than the place I went before that quoted me $ 35 and more than 2 weeks turnaround. I also went to another place and they quoted me the same price. I was tired of looking around even more so I just decided on this place. She got it done within a week.
When I first went for the fitting, I asked when I should pay. She was quite annoyed that I asked and said, «Everyone pays first! That’s how it is!» So I paid, and she gave me a receipt.
When I came back for the dress, everything went smoothly, and I gave her my receipt. She asked me if I paid yet, I said yes, I paid when I gave this dress to you. Then she tried to get me to pay again by saying something like, «if it were paid i would have written ‘paid’ on the receipt.» What the hell! She said herself that everyone pays first, so why is she questioning whether I paid or not in the first place? Also, if she is even questioning whether I paid or not, that means not everyone pays first, so she was just trying to get money out of me as soon as possible, and trying to trick me into paying again the second time!
I am never coming back here. She is just dishonest. Save yourself from the trouble of getting hounded for paying when you’ve already paid.

i truly believe Lai can do anything with a sewing machine. she is a wizard. go see her for any project big or small.

Have been going to Lai’s for many years to taper in my (men’s) dress shirts at the waist. Regardless of whether these shirts were purchased as Slim Fit or Extra Slim Fit, there is always more material at the waist than what I like.
Ms Lai would taper my dress shirts from the sides (as opposed to the less desirable and less expensive darts on the back).
Prior to Lai’s, I have also tried other tailors, did it the darts method etc. By the way, the darting method is terrible and makes a man’s shirt look like a woman’s shirt. Skip it and don’t spoil your expensive dress shirt by darting.
Lai’s is the best and the price is very reasonable. The quality of the alteration is great. I just brought my Canali suit pants to make it slimmer looking. Canali, although a nice suit, does have a boxy shape. They look great.

Didn’t do my suit jacket sleeves to the correct length and refused to fix the error until I paid her additional money. She charges $ 45 to shorten sleeves and another $ 15 to fix it… I’m going to New York Tailor in Little Italy instead, found out that they’re only charging $ 20 for the same service.
She is fine for basic alterations but you can find better prices for more complicated tailoring services elsewhere.

This woman is efficient and amazing.

I expected a tailoring place in Chinatown and I wasn’t disappointed when I went in. It’s a working place and there’s a lot of clothes and fabric laying out but again, I expected that. The price is fair and Mrs. Yee is sweet enough to negotiate at times for you… Depending on the clothing type and job type.
It’s not a fancy place but the job gets done and she offers a lot of insight on how to make the clothing item look better according to your body type.

Everyone wants my tailor’s number.
Sample sales are my crack. I can’t say no to a $ 75 Max Mara dress even if it’s a size 42 and I’m just a 38. But I don’t worry about it because I’ve got Yee Tai. Yee Tai is the owner of this place and she is truly gifted at what she does.
I make sure that my dresses always hit the most flattering aka skinniest part of my leg. My jacket sleeves are always slimmed down even more to make me seem as thin as possible.
Mind you, I’m bringing her Dior, YSL, Giambatista Vali, Prada items which have INCREDIBLE finishing. A simple invisible hem on a YSL dress isn’t so simple since I want her to absolutely recreate the hem. Hence she has to detach the ribbon sewn INSIDE of the finishing, reattach it, then hand stitch the whole thing. Beautiful and time consuming. But for $ 45, it’s not bad at all compared to the $ 80 quote I got from Madison.
She takes her time so when I bring in 2 items, she usually needs 1 week or longer to finish it. However, if you REALLY really need a dress, she can do it in a day or two, but beg and be nice. Def. helps if you’re a repeat client.
As everyone claimed before me, she is not cheap. She doesn’t do $ 7 hem jobs unless you’re throwin her some simple 2 minute cut and sew cotton pants thing. I just bring those kinds of things to my local tailor/​dry cleaner.
That being said, there is no reception area and this is not Madison ave. It’s cluttered. It’s Chinatown. Helps if you can speak Chinese but she’s fluent in English and has lots of Caucasian clients as well. But know that your precious ready to wear is in good hands.
NOTE: SHE IS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS