A “Puff” of Style! Monday, 25 January 2010 13:12 Written by Julia Taylor

Being from Australia “hate” is not a strong enough word for what I feel about Shanghai winters!  I absolutely despise being cold and cannot understand how or why people seem to rejoice when winter finally arrives in this awesome city!  I am forever striving for different ways to keep myself warm and comfortable and in my quest for this I made a great discovery of a tiny little hole-in-the-wall shop that I can only imagine in four months time will be empty of what is going on in there now and will start selling watermelons or other summer goodies that will make someone a quick buck! 

The current owners, or renters, of this shop are making puffer jackets in all shapes, sizes, colours and styles.  All of these jackets are made to measure and great quality and the price is also nothing to complain about.  There were three Shanghai Dolls buying at the same time, which I think helped with the price and the fact that I also told the woman that I know a lot of expat women in Shanghai.  One of the many great things about getting one of these jackets made to order is not only that they fit you very well, but that you can also choose your own stuffing.  We ended up choosing the middle price one, which is so warm that I quite often find myself sweating and needing to wear way less layers from place to place.

Basically the process is that you go in and pick from one of the styles that are hanging up on the wall, which then can be modified to match what you want.  After you are settled on the style then you choose the stuffing, which they will let you feel for quality.  After both of those stages are done you choose the colour, length and any extra’s that you may want and then comes the fun part – bargaining!  Saying that we have pretty much done the hard work for you, because we were there for almost an hour working with her for a better price and the going rates are 520rmb for long jacket, which goes well under your knees and 480rmb for one that is shorter and stops above the knee.

When choosing what you want for your jacket you can be as specific as the size of the quilted squares or if you don’t want them to be squares you can get them changed to a different shape.  I think that this shop did a fantastic job, but if it is not convenient for you to go there I am sure there will be one in your area.  So far I have seen three of these stores all in walking distance from my house.  If you do choose to go to another one of the stores then you have the prices that use and if you wait long enough you may event get a better price as winter comes to an end and then you have one less thing to organise next year when winter hits again.

Something to consider when going to order a jacket if you don’t speak Chinese you might want to take someone who can, because the staff in these shops can’t speak English.

Shop is Wuding Lu not sure on the number, but it is very close to the corner of Jiaozhou Lu – you can’t miss it!