The platform recruited more than 100 fashion advisers to tailor men's shirts and plans to expand their current 30 experience stores to 50 cities.

According to IWODE, tailoring services attract and retain customers. Once they supply measurements, the data is stored and clients only have to choose fabrics and styles next time they are shopping.

CITYSUIT, which received 3.6 million yuan funding from the Shenzhen-listed company Zhenjiang Saint Angelo this year, also offers customized clothing services for men.

As well as an online site at lecaimall.com, CITYSUIT operates in 13 regions in Beijing and Shanghai with a focus on businessmen aged between 30 and 40 years old.

"Chinese suits are made along the lines of traditional European suits with jacket, vest and trousers, but are nipped in at the waist and shoulders to fit slender figures," said Bian Xiangyang, a professor who specializes in apparel studies at Shanghai Donghua University.

In 1896, the first homegrown Chinese tailor, Hechang, opened on North Sichuan Road in Shanghai. More shops run by Zhejiang tailors quickly followed.

Bian added that another wave started up in the following century, led by Baromon, a well-known Shanghai suit brand.

Meng Jia, a men's clothes designer in Shanghai, said: "I remember my grandfather telling me that every man walking down the streets in old Shanghai wore formal suits, even shoeshine boys."

Yu Ran contributed to this story.