Chinese New Year Filipino Style: Where to buy a Cheongsam in the Philippines?

I've decided to wear a red cheongsam to welcome the year of the Wood Horse. (If you're looking for ideas on what to wear on Chinese New Year you should read my previous entry here.) Now the challenge was where to buy a cheongsam in the Philippines? I've tried searching on these auction sites: Sulit, Ayos Dito and Ebay PH and I haven't found a single red cheongsam for teens/adults! I considered placing an order from outside the Philippines but I prefer to fit the clothes before I buy them, and I wasn't confident it would even arrive on time for the Chinese New Year. I told my sister about it and she agreed to come with me to the 168 Shopping Mall at Divisoria. We could have gone to the mall, but we're pretty sure we've seen stalls that sell cheongsam inside the 168 during our shopping sprees.

How do I commute to 168 Shopping Mall?

If you don't know how to commute to 168 here's a link to my favorite commuting guide: Commuting to 168 Mall. The mall's website actually has a guide as well: How to commute going to 168 Shopping Mall but I prefer Commuting in the Philippines 101's guide since it's more detailed, and it has more commuting routes compared to the official site's guide.

Where can I buy a cheongsam in the 168 Shopping Mall?

Since the mall was renovated and they added the Soler-Recto wing, I've only been to 168 a few times and frankly the layout of the stalls is a little confusing. So my sister and I probably missed a few but we did a good sweep of all floors. Out of all the stalls we've checked, we only found 3 that sell cheongsam and 2 of them only sold children's size. In retrospect, I should've taken note of the stall numbers of other 2 shops that sold cheongsam. I'll update this post next time I'll keep an eye out for them. I promise!

Anyway, after hours of looking for a shop that sells adult-sized cheongsam, we finally found one that did: Stall 3J-15! They sell adult size ones for P580 and the children's size for P480. The salesperson claimed that the price is fixed, but we were still able to haggle the price down. Always try to haggle!

Unfortunately, all they had were traditional cheongsam. For the adult size, they had 3 designs available:

Dragon (Red)

Flower (Red)

and a pink one that had the clasps going down the front center of the dress. I wasn't able to take a picture of that one. They had a wider selection of colors and designs for children's size cheongsam and I regret not taking a picture of those.

Got more pics?

Of course I do! BTW all pictures were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S2. These next pictures were taken here at my bahay kubo (nipa hut):

Zipper

CON: No lining!

So there you have it! Thank you Stall 3J-15 and 168 Shopping Mall! Now I have something to wear on Chinese New Year! Oh! If you know a shop that sells modern style cheongsam please let me know! If you go to 168 and buy from this shop, please tell them about my blog! (lol) So, what are you wearing on Chinese New Year? Post pictures of your outfit of choice in the comments section below!