Bespoke Fashion: What is it?

We're hearing a lot about 'bespoke' these days. It's like the new trend in fashion.

But what does it mean? Is it a noun? A verb? An adjective? An adverb? (Bespeaking? Bespokenly? If my outfit today is bespoke then can I bespeak another one tomorrow?) Can we conjugate it? Should we?

So many questions....

The dictionary defines bespoke (/b􏰀ˈspə􏰀k/) as "made for a particular customer or user. Ha. Then we are very - bespoken, we Indians. Most Indian males of A Certain Age grew up with suitings and shirtings. Most females grew up with the neighbourhood tailor who made their first saree blouse (aka 'jacket') under the watchful eye of stern mothers (not so low neckline, take it up two inches!!)

Does that count as bespoke?

What about school uniforms, all identical in design and style but all made to order for the individual student, sometimes by the school tailor, sometimes by the student’s family tailor, sometimes by the student’s family? Did we, as grubby little schoolkids, wear bespoke apparel?

What about all the 'dress materials' we had to 'get stitched'? Does that count as bespoke?

When our cousins overseas got married and ordered 27 identical bridesmaid sarees, was that bespoke?

...and so many answers.

The HOBteam tried to be helpful and offered various definitions of their own, based on taste, preferences, and time of day. (And month).

First offering: You are getting off track unnecessarily. Bespoke is nothing but when we design a blouse from scratch for a customer. Fabric, neck, sleeves, embellishments all made to order no? That's a bespoke blouse!

Second: Actually its not us who bispeeks it - stop laughing! - it's our Design-A-Blouse app. That one will let you choose everything online, so customer doesn't even have to waste time talking, just like that, all done. Stop laughing!

Third. No, bespoke is a different thing. What we do is couture.

Fourth: Don't be silly, couture is french.

Back to the source

All this helpfulness was giving us a slight headache so we turned to Wiki. "Bespoke tailoring is clothing made to an individual buyer's specifications by a tailor."

Hmm. Then what's the difference between tailormade and bespoke?

"The word bespoke is derived from the verb "bespeak", to speak for something, in the specialised meaning "to give order for it to be made".[1] The term bespoke in fashion is reserved for individually patterned and crafted men's clothing, analogous to women's haute couture,[2] in contrast with mass-manufactured ready-to-wear (also called off-the-peg or off-the-rack).”

Sort of interesting but not very useful.

Aha. Let's ask our designers, those patient and articulate souls.

So sorry to interrupt, hate to be-a-spoke (ha!) in the churning wheel of your creativity, but are y'all bespeaking at the moment?

From the lair of our gifted and overworked Head Designer, a bellow: what are you babbling about? Why I am sitting here day after day sketching and designing and designing, my whole table is covered in scraps for what? If we are not doing bespoke then what we are doing? Go away immediately.

That’s when we became enlightened.

We realised that it matters not if bespoke is a method or a mood or a metaphor.

It simply means ‘as you like it’.

We’re cool with that.

Want to try our Bespoke services? Find out more here.

The End