Dear Ladies in Stall 348 at Shanghai South Bund Soft Spinning Material Market (aka The Napu Bridge Fabric Market), there's a little saying you need to learn. It goes like this:
IF
a) It looks like a duck (you know, cute, feathers, webbed feet)
AND
b) It walks like a duck (it waddles that cute way only ducks can)
AND
c) It sounds like a duck (QUACK! QUACK!)
THEN
d) Guess What? IT'S A DUCK!
Now. With that out of the way, onto the story.
So, I went to the fabric market to pick up the second dress I had made. My first dress was perfect and done early, so I decided to get another one made, I took a chance however and went to a different stall (bad move). I walked in and immediately saw MY dress hanging. My roomies had also had dresses made and all three of our dresses were on the same hanger, there was no mistaking it. I pulled out my order slip and the ladies looked at each other and started talking very fast in Chinese. Clearly, something was wrong. I waited about 5 minutes and finally, the one lady who assisted me when I originally went in and got measured and picked it out, proceeded to tell me in English that I could not take the dress today. "Well, why not?" I asked. "It's supposed to be ready today... and its on the hanger with my friends' clothes." She told me it wasn't mine. Needless to say I was confused. "But it is..." I replied, clearly missing some kind of point. "No, it belongs to someone else" she answered. I looked at it baffled. I proceeded to tell her that it was:
a) the same style dress I'd chosen - a halter dress that was knee length
b) made in the same fabric I had ordered
and
c) on a hanger with my roommates dresses that we all ordered at the same time!
She tried to usher me out of her shop and told me I would have to come back another day; it wasn't mine. I was NOT buying it. I'd paid money for the dress, it was clearly what I had ordered and it was coming with me. The ladies proceeded to make calls on their cell phones, I have no idea to who, I assumed the tailor in charge or responsible for the order. Several minutes later they got off their phones and continued to insist it wasn't mine. They had it off the hanger and were examining it, holding it up to themselves trying to show me it was going to be too small. I still didn't buy it and literally had to pull it away from one of the ladies so I could try it on. If it didn't fit, fine, I would admit defeat. But I wasn't going down without a struggle. So I tried the dress on... and guess what? IT FIT.. PERFECTLY! No surprise there. No mistaking it was mine, it fit through the bust, the waist, and magically, the skirt portion stopped bang on my knee caps where I'd asked them to cut it... funny, eh? They looked at me and still somehow, managed to lie through their teeth and deny it was mine! I glared at them and repeated all the evidence that it was mine, looked at them and said "Can I take my dress now, please? It's due today, it's the same one I ordered, in the right fabric AND it fits!" They talked in Chinese to each other and sighed and solemnly agreed to let me leave with the property that I had paid for.
So what exactly was the problem? I really don't know. One of my roommates suggested that someone came in the shop, tried it on, it fit and they most likely sold it from underneath me for more money and were going to re-do mine but I came in to pick it up before they had a chance. I am open to any ideas if you think you know what on earth happened here if you have any experience with these sorts of things. All I know is it was a huge pain in the ass and a giant waste of time out of my day, given it should have taken max 5 minutes! Definitely the last item I will be having made at this fabric market. If you want a good experience, stick to stall 160 :)
End Rant.
I'll let the photographic evidence speak for itself.
Ladies... what was the problem???
Looks like a good fit to me. You decide.
