research
The Fashion Week Debate: Prêt à porter versus Bespoke
It's 1999 at Paris fashion week. Models, designers, and industry hotshots gather to work, mingle, and prove who's best dressed. Kitty is an up-and-coming designer known for her unique way with colors and use of household objects. The Mugatu syndicate has an established brand and extensive line of prêt à porter dresses marked with their iconic symbol -- the fleur capri. Customers love the Mugatu brand, its durability, and its simplicity. Some customers have complained about its one-size-fits-all approach, but the brand is so ubiquitous it has become the very definition of "high fashion."
Kitty is successful because she listens closely and builds partnerships with her models. In extensive imagining sessions (many involving peyote), Kitty and her community of makers generate blistering dreamscapes and original modes of cloth-crafting. The outcomes are beyond bespoke. Their designs are innovative, boundary-breaking, and out of this world. Kitty's ideas are all astounding, but only a few of them can be worn and even fewer will keep you warm.
Following a few snarky exchanges and high jinks, Kitty finds herself standing next to Mugatu. The great tailor turns to both of them with a challenge: "why should people wear your clothes?"
Mugatu starts off: "Our ready-to-wear sacks will fit anyone. The fleur shows that you are a fashion beacon like all others."
Kitty: "That's the problem. You sell a manufactured idea of originality to conformists who know nothing about fashion or themselves. They buy your logo because they don't want to think. Because you say what's fashionable, we never dream of being anything more than your users. We mould our world to fit the prêt à porter."
Mugatu: "And you, my little friend, prey on hipsters. Who cares if you're the only one wearing a hydrangea-themed women's kilt? You live off narcissism and the myth that different is better. Our sacks get the job done with sass enough."
Great Tailor: "There's no such thing a woman's kilt. But maybe that's the point. At least Kitty's bad idea is provocative. All your bags look the same. Your sack is just a general solution to a common problem -- entropy."
Mugatu: "But, you must admit, much of the time, you just need something to wear or you'd get cold. Kitty's 'thread commune,' to save threads from the opression of weaving, is just a box full of yarn and thread. Try wearing that!"
Kitty: "We are the masks we present to the world. Why choose to wear a blank face with no emotion? Better to thrive and inspire than just sell dresses."
Great Tailor: "You have both made strong arguments. Mugatu's bags are practical and keep us warm. Entropy is clearly a problem. But Kitty's kilts are fun. I remember seeing her clothes. I tell my friends about them. They bring me joy.
Accepted wisdom says that I can't be unique every day. Most of the time I'm just keeping warm and getting by. Most days, a sack over my torso is exactly what I need. Every day can't be my special day.
But if I don't take this moment to be something special, when will I ever make the time? And if I only get dressed up for special occasions, all the other days boring. Must I really decide that some days are boring, but other days, for whatever reason are special?"
Mugatu: "I'll be honest with you. I wasn't listening to you just now. But I have an answer to your question. Most people, most of the time, just want a bag to keep warm. So give that to them. Often enough, the bag won't fit, or it won't be warm. That's when you experiment. As the sages say: 'We're not a skunk works.' We need to be strategic about research and development."
Kitty: "But don't they also say that every project should try at least one new thing. Sometimes it's something new to us. Other times it's something that's never been done before. We can't just wait to do new things. We have to make space for it in everything we do."
Mugatu: "That sounds strategic to me. You are truly a wise designer. Maybe someday you'll join us off the rack. Until then, get out of my way!"