Jimmy Chen & Co

Jimmy Chen & Co's claim rests on continuity. Jimmy Chen came to Hong Kong from Pudong in 1948, one of the Shanghainese tailors who moved south in those years, and the historian York Lo calls him probably the most entrepreneurial of them. He opened at 12A Cameron Road, added shops in The Peninsula, the Hong Kong Hotel and two office buildings in Central, and in 1972 started The Optical Shop, which Jardine bought for $34.6 million in 1988. Lyndon Johnson, as vice president, Clark Gable and William Holden were clients.

The business has contracted since. Its manager told the Associated Press in 2005 that it had once had eight shops and was down to two, and the only shop we could confirm today is in The Peninsula's arcade. Monocle, writing in April 2026, called it one of the city's longest-standing bespoke tailors and reported that its lease there is secured for life, so its place in the arcade looks safe.

What it lacks is published detail. There is no website, no current price list, no named cutter and no public account of how many fittings it gives or whether its suits are made in Hong Kong or across the border. The last firm figures we found date from 2005, when suits cost $771 to $2,571. That makes it hard to set against W.W. Chan, whose cutters, workshop and process are documented.

It suits guests of The Peninsula and visitors drawn to a firm with nearly eight decades of history. Before ordering, ask who will cut the pattern, where the suit will be made, how many fittings are included and what a two-piece suit costs in the fabric you choose.