This morning Julie and I went into old town Hoi An and we’re fitted for clothing and shoes. So many choices, but we went to Yaly first, which Julie noticed was quite quality. I chose a suit made of a dark blue linen/cotton blend. Pretty basic. And a white linen/cotton tunic-type blouse. Pretty cheap. Julie has a whole bunch of dresses being made for her, an had fun designing them with her associate from the store.

It was a lovely experience at Yaly. We were there at opening (we are keeners) and we’re each claimed by an associate. Then we were taken into a room where we looked at books of tear sheets and placed bookmarks when we saw something we liked. I had a book labelled ‘suits’. Once I showed my associate (her name is Tanya) that I knew what I wanted she took me to look for fabrics.

The walls of Yaly are covered in bolts of fabric. Tanya first showed me the section with wool and cashmere, but I wanted linen so she showed me those instead. Lots of colours to choose from. I knew exactly what I wanted when I saw it and Tanya yanked it out from the wall and let me touch and explained the price. Then some cotton for my blouse (off-white because the white-white was too white). Then to the back further into the store to choose from a wall of polyester linings (cotton lining cost more – and I don’t think I’ve had a cotton lining for anything.) I chose white with blue and black stripes. I was tempter to get bright pink, but no.

I then had my picture taken against a wall with height markings. I had to stand facing front, to the side and to the back. Very scientific, or I have been very secretly arrested. Then Tanya measured me – old school, with a tape measure. Unfortunately I don’t have a regular bra with me (only sports bras) so Tanya added a bit to my chest measurement.

I have an appointment for my first fitting tomorrow at 12:30. I might need a second fitting tomorrow night, and they’ll deliver to my hotel when everything is done.

Very relaxed at Yaly. The associates are all in uniforms of an asian dress with the slit and pants beneath. They all carry a little purse with supplies.

After Yaly, we ventured into the cloth market, where I was expecting to browse, but we were picked up right away by a vendor and led deep inside to her stall. The cloth market is made up of stalls full of bolts of fabric and taylors. All the tayors want to make you things.

Our taylor sat us down and gave us wated and caught our attention by saying she had linen (caught Julie’s attention-I was still like whaaaaat’s going on??) They had books of tear sheets too, which we promptly started looking through, while the taylor bantered. There was a whole handful of swatches of linen. I found a pair of pants I wanted made of linen, and chose a colour, then since I was there, found a blouse I wanted to, and the taylor showed me some nice cotton (the non-wrinkle, washable kind). She also described how she could alter the design along the neck, and could make the sleeves quarter-length. I’ve ordered two.

Then, the friend of the taylor approached us and invited us to her shoe stall across the road from the cloth market. This was in the shoe market, I guess: there were a lot of shoe stalls. Same thing: looking through books and choosing the leather we wanted for shoes. I’m getting some red flats.

As we were leaving the shoe maker’s, another woman approached us trying to get us to buy souvenirs, or do threading, or get a tattoo. By this time, however, we needed a rest and lunch. It was kind of hard to escape.

We have a series of fittings to attend tomorrow morning. I have much less money now.