Shipping a Tailored Suit Home From Bangkok: What It Costs and Who Handles Customs

Who books the shipment

The tailor does. The shop that took the measurements books the collection and gives the courier the delivery address. The customer does not open an account, fill in a customs form or file anything with US Customs.

Collection is from the shop in Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai. A tailor outside those three cities sends the finished garments to the Dragon Courier office.

The address given at the shop is the address the box goes to. It needs a full street address and a phone number that works in the destination country.

What it costs

Price is weight and dimension, quoted for the country, with duty and tax inside the number. A two piece suit is about 2 kg boxed, which is the line to read in the table below. Shirts and ties sit at the 0.5 kg line.

Thai Baht, duty and tax included, tailor price list of 3 August 2026.

Shipments run from 0.1 kg, a tie or a shirt, to 30 kg. Above 30 kg is possible and rare for one order. No discount for a larger order, no surcharge for a remote address, one price for every customer.

A box is billed on its actual weight or on the space it takes in the hold, whichever is greater. A wedding order of several suits usually prices on the space.

Duty on a suit entering the USA

Every suit sent to a US address is dutiable. The exemption that used to let parcels under 800 dollars in duty free no longer applies to courier shipments:

"The exemption provided in paragraph (a) of this section is suspended for merchandise arriving via all modes other than through the international postal network until such time as CBP determines that the application of the exemption is no longer inconsistent with the purpose of 19 U.S.C. 1321(a), no longer jeopardizes the revenue, and no longer facilitates unlawful importations."

Source: 19 CFR 10.151(b), eCFR, current as of 26 August 2026 (CBP Dec. 26-12, 91 FR 37800, 24 June 2026).

The rate comes from the tariff code, and the code comes from the cloth. A men's suit in worsted wool of 18.5 microns or less is 6203.11.60.00, general rate 17.5 percent. A men's suit of cotton is 6203.19.10, general rate 13.2 percent. A cotton shirt is 6205.20.20, general rate 19.7 percent. Rates from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, US International Trade Commission, consulted 8 September 2026.

A suit is not a gift for customs purposes, whoever it is addressed to. The regulation defines the term narrowly:

"A \"bona fide gift\" for purposes of § 10.152 is an article formerly owned by a donor (may be a commercial firm) who gave it outright in its entirety to a donee without compensation or promise of compensation. It does not include articles acquired by purchase, barter, promissory exchange, or similar transaction"

Source: 19 CFR 10.153(a), eCFR, current as of 26 August 2026.

None of this reaches the customer on a duty inclusive shipment. The amount is inside the price paid in Bangkok, and the parcel is delivered without a bill attached. Dragon Courier is duty inclusive on the USA, the UK, the EU, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and the UAE.

The question to ask at the shop is whether the shipment is booked duty inclusive or duty exclusive. On a duty exclusive shipment the customs charge is collected from the recipient before the box is released.

Labels and country of origin

A garment made to measure after the sale does not need the sewn label a shop garment needs, provided the paperwork carries the information instead:

"Where properly labeled samples, swatches, or specimens are used to effect the sale of articles of wearing apparel or other household textile articles which are manufactured specifically for a particular customer after the sale is consummated, the articles of wearing apparel or other household textile articles need not be labeled if they are of the same fiber content as the samples, swatches, or specimens from which the sale was effected and an invoice or other document accompanies them showing the information otherwise required to appear on the label."

Source: 16 CFR 303.21(b), eCFR, current as of 31 August 2026.

Country of origin marking has its own exception, and it turns on what the importer does with the garment:

"(f) Articles imported for use by the importer and not intended for sale in their imported or any other form"

Source: 19 CFR 134.32(f), eCFR, current as of 26 August 2026.

A suit going to the person who ordered it and will wear it sits inside that exception. A suit going to a shop for resale does not.

Thailand carries no textile visa or quota requirement. That was cancelled for WTO member countries, Thailand named in the list, effective 1 January 2005 (Federal Register Vol. 70 No. 127, FR Doc. E5-3490).

How the suit travels

By air, door to door. Garments go into a box, not a garment bag. Tracking is provided on the day of export and can be shared with anyone at the delivery address.

Transit is generally 2 to 4 working days on the main markets. Signatures are deliberately not collected, because a signature requirement is a common reason a delivery is missed and pushed to the next day. If the box cannot be left safely the driver takes it back for a second attempt or leaves it at a nearby pick up point.

What to settle before leaving the shop

The full delivery address with a working local phone number. Whether the shipment is duty inclusive or duty exclusive. The contents item by item, because the paperwork names the garments rather than saying clothes. Whether everything ships together or in two boxes as pieces are finished. Who to contact when the tracking number arrives.

Alterations are the expensive exception. A suit that needs work after it lands is a second international shipment in each direction, so the last fitting before the flight is the one that counts.

About Dragon Courier

Dragon Courier is a Bangkok courier that has served the Thai tailoring community for 30 years. Tailoring was the founding business before the company shipped anything else. Volume today is more than 20,000 shipments a month worldwide.

For tailored goods the service is duty inclusive door to door with free collection from the shop. On the USA route Dragon Courier runs its own service to the destination and clears customs itself, then a US carrier covers the final leg.

Contacts and drop-off

A quote needs two things, the contents of the box and the delivery address. The shop can get it in a message before the customer leaves Bangkok. Office +66 2656 9019, LINE and WhatsApp at +66 6-5937-0812, or info@dragoncourier.com.

Drop-off runs until 17:00, Monday to Saturday, at the Bangkok office on Sukhumvit Soi 4 or the Chiang Mai office on Viangbua Road, and a collection can be arranged for a date and time that suits the shop. What customs charges on garments market by market is set out in the guide on shipping clothes from Thailand.