Shanghai Halloween costume capers: 'You want me to make you a what?'

We headed to the South Bund Fabric Market with pictures of three Shanghai Halloween costumes and a simple mission: Stump the tailor.

We had three costumes in mind: The easiest (or so we thought), was an oh-so-American cheerleader outfit inspired by "High School Musical." We got progressively tougher with Bruno’s skin-tight, high-rise yellow lederhosen outfit. Shanghai’s irritatingly omnipresent Expo icon Haibao, rounded out our list.

Offering the challenge

Our first stop was a shop, (no. 272) that teemed with sparkling, shimmering fabrics. Johnny, the shopkeeper, whipped out a binder with photographs of witches, fairies and pirates.

“This year we’ve already had a really strange one,” Johnny said. “I don’t know the word in English but it’s a man’s body with no muscles, no skin just ... "

“Bones? A skeleton?”

“Yeah!” he said. “Can you believe it?”

For Johnny, the cheerleader was no problem. Neither was Bruno, though this did elicit some shocked giggles. But no amount of money could buy Haibao.

“It’s impossible,” Johnny said.

“Haibao? They want us to make Haibao?” his disinterested assistant stopped her texting and laughed incredulously.

Johnny's quotes for the cheerleader and Bruno costumes were too high, so we moved on.

At the next costume-friendly shop (no. 236), a stylish young tailor named Lin was willing to make our Shanghai Halloween cheerleading costume, but Bruno’s yellow hat stumped her. She agreed to take on Haibao for RMB 900 -- way beyond our budget.

Her price for the cheerleader was much better -- RMB 300, including pom poms -- so we gave her that assignment.

“In Chinese, we call this 'la la dui,'” Lin said, kicking her feet in the air and waving her hands.

One down, two to go

After several more Haibao rejections, it was shop no. 279, with its Haibao-blue fabric on display, where we were going to kill two birds with the one tailor.

“Are you kidding?” the shopowner asked. “Hey, she wants Haibao!”

A group quickly gathered and a brave young woman named Ivy emerged.

“Do you want eyes? Holes for your shoes? You’ll need Haibao to be fat or he won’t look right.”

We were skeptical: Ivy's stall specializes in dress shirts. But she was so eager and confident, and the price was right if we gave her two orders. Bruno, yellow hat and all, plus Haibao came to RMB 780.

The pictures of Bruno’s tight yellow jumpsuit shocked her brother who said he’d never made such a risqué outfit.

“I would never wear those,” he said. “Way too short -- wouldn’t look good!”

The results are in

A week later, we returned to find mixed results. What had seemed like the easiest Shanghai Halloween costume -- the cheerleader -- was about four sizes too big. And Lin wasn’t able to do pom poms -- they were simply “too difficult.”

Ivy surprised us with her attention to detail, even Bruno’s accentuated crotch seams were exactly right. Even more impressive was Haibao, the costume that had stumped everyone. It was perfect. He was anatomically proportioned. He was fat. And we could fit inside. Even that annoying half smile was there. We’ll definitely be wearing that one for Halloween -- and hoping no one tries to beats us up. 

At least they won't know who we are.

getting there

South Bund Fabric Market
399 Lujiabang Lu, near Zhongshan Nan Lu 陆家浜路399号, 近中山南路
Hours: 9am-6:30pm

There's still time to sort out your Shanghai Halloween costume -- allow a week for your design to be made.