New Age Designer

I got a custom made dress here for my wedding. I got to select the fabric and got fitted perfectly. The dress was phenomenal, super flattering and classy. It stood up well all night and was comfortable for dancing.

The place have nice fabrics to make Qi Pao. However, I drove from Boston, Ma just to find a nice helpful tailor that can help guide me on what I can do to receive a custom made Qi Pao for my wedding. I didn’t really receive good service since the lady who works there didn’t show much interest of helping me. She did ask some questions on what I need, when I need it, how I want it and so forth. But, again, I feel uncomfortable as though I’m a waste of time being helped.

I got my bridesmaid dress shortened here and I am a fan! The ladies are so kind, so honest and so easy to work with! It was a fast experience, both in and out of the store and the service was speedy too! I was going to be charged $ 150 for alterations at the UES… I took my dress to New Age Designer, and they charged me $ 45! I was shocked with joy… and they did such a great job!
Sending all my friends here from now on :-)
Note: they except cash only… so bring your dollars!
Thanks ladies!

I can easily give the shop two out of 5 stars but they are a staple in the community. Not sure if these are the original owners but this storefront has been a fixture in Chinatown at least for the past 30 years. I came into the shop by default since this is the only store I knew that sold and custom-​makes traditional cheongsam and Chinese attire. It was a pleasant experience and I was able to try two sample gowns on sale. Both were too big and the size that came closes to me was probably a size 6. If we wanted to the purchase the gown as is it would’ve cost $ 350 with free alterations. For a custom-​made gown it would cost $ 500. Now don’t quote me, I may be off give or take $ 25 – 50 — this was our last stop during a long shopping day around town. The folks here no-​doubt will be able to make a gown to suit your needs but there may be other cheaper options if you’re not too picky.

I rarely give local vendors bad reviews but feel compelled to share my recent disappointing experience. In short, after 5 trips, being called names a few times, and spending $ 120, I got my pre-​made very delicate Chinese red gown modified, but unfortunately, the detachable backing/​board to the back of my laced up dress went missing. Their «designer» may be an OK tailor, but based on my experience, is impatient, disrespectful, unprofessional and first to deny any responsibility when things go wrong.
During my first trip, the «designer» told me it was possible to add extra puffiness/​tulle to my dress if I bring the dress over. On my second trip, when I brought my dress, the «designer» was not around, but her assistant (who is quite nice) told me that I need to bring the tulle too, which the «designer» did not inform me on the first trip. For my third trip, the «designer» drew a sketch for the modification. She got annoyed when I politely asked questions about her sketch and started calling me «annoying ghost» in Chinese. I did not want to spend more time over this, and having read Pirle P’s recent review and understood customer service was not their pirority, I decided to give them a try and paid cash. Before I left, she made me take back the lace to the back which I did, but also wanted to detach the backing/​board, which was getting a little loose. I told her I wasn’t sure if the backing could be detached and did not want to «ruin» it. So she kept the backing on the dress. Lastly, she agreed to fix a little nit over the internal hook on the top at no extra charge which I appreciated.
When I came back (4^th trip) to pick up the dress, the layers were added ok but the backing went missing. The assistant called the «designer,» who immediately denied ever seeing the backing, then the assistant insisted on me checking at home. To avoid making another trip with the very delicate dress, I let them hold it and the assistant agreed to add the backing at extra cost if I could not find. I even had the materials for the backing picked out. Next day, I called to get a price quote. The designer raised her voice and again denied fervently that she ever saw the backing. I asked her to kindly add the backing at extra cost. To my surprise, she said she could not do that because it’s «too complicated.» I realized that there’s nothing more I can do but go back (5^th trip) to pick up the dress, and be done with them.
I think a lot get revealed when things go wrong. I don’t think they purposefully lost my backing but the way they handled it was very disappointing. Hope my experience helps your future dealings!

It is important to note that these women are not nice. If you are a Chinese-​American girl, going into this store is like going to a family function after gaining a little weight — The women who work here are like those relatives who have no qualms about announcing how «fat» you’ve become in front of everyone… Customer service is not this store’s strong suit. Prepare to be scrutinized…
CONTEXT: I took my close friend here about 10 years ago to get a qipao/​cheongsam made. Because of time constraints, this was the only shop in Chinatown that could accommodate her. She is beautiful and her dress was beautiful. I wasn’t a fan of the store or the customer service but no big deal…
FAST FORWARD TO 10 YEARS LATER: I need a qipao/​cheongsam for my wedding. The store is still there. The same people are still working there. The photographs on the dusty counter are the ones that used to be in a dusty binder. Now, they have premade qipaos and jackets on messy racks in the front of the store.
COST/​QUALITY: Like anywhere else, a custom qipao will cost you about $ 500+ and, if you get a custom qipao here, it will probably turn out fine — maybe you’ll get lucky and find a nice, premade one on the rack.
ADVICE: Put on your protective New York armor before walking into this store. If they make you feel badly about yourself, just remember that you’re not alone and that they make a lot of people feel this way. Of course, their prices aren’t listed and, of course, they may charge you slightly more because they feel like it. But, sometimes, you just need to work with what you’ve got…
Personally, I recommend checking out CFG, which has interesting qipaos and cheongsams (fashion-​forward and traditional) and offers custom dresses, and Red Peony, which is a little more conventional than CFG with less selection and also offers the custom option — now on the top floor in the back of Pearl River Mart. The prices at both of those places are comparable and the service is *much* better.

A lot of folks have written about reviews about the making of the Qipaos. Within Chinatown, this is probably the most common, go to place. They have beautiful cloth; and you can always also bring your own cloth. They are professional and accommodating.
I actually will go to these ladies for everything to hems and buttons. They take simple jobs, do them quickly, and charge you an extraordinarily fair price. Indeed, they end up being cheaper than most.
I have really high standards in order for folks to get the 5^th star. That said, I would trust them for most things.
Cash only.

really talented dressmakers and tailors here. they can be kind of difficult with logistics — when you drop stuff off be sure to make it very very clear when you’ll be wanting to pick it up. They have strange hours and sometimes close early if not busy.
The area to try things on isn’t big or fancy but most tailor’s aren’t. What I love is that the seamstress has a point of view (even if it’s not mine) and that she is obviously passionate about clothes.
Every time I’ve been here I’ve seen women there for Qipao and Cheongsam dresses (beautiful traditional Chinese formalware) — often several generations of women fussing over beautiful dresses. It’s clearly a very well known place for those.

My parents and I made the long trip from MD to NYC to get fitted for my custom made qipao over Thanksgiving 2009. I had my 2^nd fitting over Christmas 2009, and my parents retrieved the dress around February. Unfortunately, between Christmas 2009 and now, I lost about an inch in my waist and the dress was too big. So my parents and I had to make another trip 2 weeks before my Chinese wedding banquet. New Age was able to make the adjustments in 2 days (for an extra $ 50 fee since it was not their fault that I lost weight). And my dad was nice enough to go back to NYC one more time to pick up the dress. Many thanks goes to my dad for taking Wednesday off and traveling 12 hours from DC to NYC and then back to DC.
Overall Breakdown of the Cost:
Qipao dress $ 440
Additional adjustments due to weight loss $ 50
Aprx. Travel cost (gas, tolls, parking in Chinatown) $ 300
Total $ 790
All of that travel time and money was definitely worth it… even though the cost of travelling probably cost more than the dress in the long run. I couldn’t have done it any other way though since I don’t live in the states.
This place has been here for years. My mom said she got her qipao dress here when she was getting married. I actually ended up picking the same fabric that she had for her dress! Like mother, like daughter, I guess. My mom also ended making her mother’s dress here. The women here definitely know what they are doing, and I would highly recommend any girl to get their qipao done here.

Unlike most little girls, I never pictured my wedding dress — to be honest, I never wanted to married (I enjoy thwarting my parents’ hopes and dreams). So when my boyfriend (now husband) proposed (in front of my parents even… there is a reason why they love him so!), I was caught off guard with the whole wedding planning thing. However, I’m not known as a super event-​planner for nothing — I had vendors lined up and contracts negotiated and faxed over to me within a month. Heh.
But then… then came the dress.
I think I mentioned my mom before. She’s a little nuts and very scary. Somehow she got me to agree that she would pick out my dress. Oddly enough, I was fine with it — my only requirements were that it couldn’t be white (makes me look like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man), and I didn’t want beading, sequins, pearls, rhinestones, lace or anything fru-​fru. My mom rose to the challenge, and immediately thought of a traditional Chinese cheongsam (or chi-​pao, depending on what dialect you speak). I loved the idea! My fiancée loved the idea! However, my mom wanted one that was custom made to fit my meat-​eating, gym-​hating, non-​Chinese-​metabolism bloated monster of a body, and the only place to get custom tailored cheongsams were in Chinatown… in New York City.
My mom found New Age Designer on Mott St, through a friend of a friend. They have premade dresses, they also do tailoring, but their speciality is making custom cheongsams. Their fabric selection is a little limited, and I didn’t see anything that I *really* loved — however, when my mom, dad and fiancée all agreed on a red and gold chrysanthemum silk brocade, I went along with it.
As I mentioned before, I know how to sew, and I know how to tailor — so when the staff at New Age Designer started to take my measurements — over my street clothes, I did an inward eye-​rolling — they can’t possibly get accurate measurements this way, I thought. Three weeks later, we came back for our dress fitting (my mom was also getting a custom made cheongsam too), and when I saw the mess that was their «mock-​up» and I continued my eye-​rolling. I thought that there was no way they could make a perfectly fitted dress for me in this! The pins were going every which way, and the cut was rather choppy and haphazard. I grew a little worried, and started to look for a «back up» dress online.
Three weeks after the dress fitting, we came up to pick up our dresses… and they were PERFECTION! I have no idea how they did it with their haphazard measuring, and crappy pinning job… but it fit like a glove! The neck was snug but didn’t choke me, the armholes were cut beautifully to make my shoulders narrow, it fitted perfectly through the bodice… the length… just perfection! They did different cuts for my cheongsam then my mom’s, as my mom was a little worried about her tummy (menopause has not been kind to my once size 2 mother), so they made it a little more flowy — which made her look 15 pounds thinner!
One funny thing — so I was trying on the cheongsam, everything fitted *perfectly* in the bodice. However, around my hips, there were probably 3″ of extra fabric. As this was a month from the wedding, I didn’t really them to fix it — yet, I felt like I should at least say something:
Me: «This is beautiful… but…well…I noticed that there was a lot of extra fabric around the hips. I don’t want you to fix it — I just wanted to let you know that it’s too big here.»
Seamstress (in Mandarin): «well miss, the last time you where here, you sat down… and I noticed that your butt tends to *spread*, so I had to put in extra fabric to compensate for that spread.»
Mom: «BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! SO TRUE! SO TRUE! Wait, how do you record video on this camera phone? Can you say that again?!»
Me: «!!!»
So, yes, sucking up to the customer is something they need to work on. On the other hand, you never have to worry that they are lying when they tell you it looks good on you. Also, when I asked for a square of matching fabric to make a pocket square for my fiancée, they cut a huge ½ strip for me — free of charge! My only complaint really is the fabric selection. When I asked them if I could buy my own fabric and bring it in, they said I could — but it would only reduce the price of the dress by $ 25, as they don’t make money on the fabric — it’s all on the tailoring. My dress came out to be $ 400. My mom’s dress (two-​layered with hand-​painted designs) was close to $ 600. They ask for a 50% deposit at the time of the order, and the balance to be paid in full when you pick up the dress.