Dirk-Jan de Bruin - lifestyle blog

I have written on the subject myself a while ago.
Here is an interesting article from the Bangkong Post on the tourist-tailoring scams in Thailand:

Stitched up and ripped off on holiday

In most Asian countries small tailors offer low-quality items, due to many factors (lack of experience producing high quality garments, low quality materials - especially fusings, low quality equipment, etc etc.).
On the other hand, a large percentage of the fashion industries products in made in China, and many of the famous brands outsource to China, Asia, Mexico, etc.. These products range from medium-to-high quality.

The main difference between the low quality garments made by small tailors, and the medium to high quality factory made garments is the level of industralisation in the process. Factories are optimized for low-cost production and use expensive equipment to produce cheap garments at high speed. They also provide better, more specialised training for each employee in the process, and often workers are assigned one specific task (specialisation).

The bottom line is: Yes, decent quality items are produced in Asia. But if you are a tourist, expect to be offered low quality products. Paying more is not going to guarantee good quality either.

It's also interesting to read people discussing the subject on Lonely Planet. Please note among the 'reviewers' are often tailors and touts for tailors writing positive words regarding their own store and/or bashing the competition.