Bespoke (pronounced bih-spohk)
(1) A simple past tense and past participle of bespeak.
(2) Of clothes, those made to individual order and custom
custom-made.
(3) The making or selling such clothes.
(4) By extension, anything (physical or weightless)
produced to a customer’s specifications, especially if a one-off creation.
(5) To ask for in advance; to reserve (obsolete).
(6) As bespeak & bespoken, betrothed or engaged to be
married; spoken for (obsolete except in the literary novel).
1745–1755: The adjective was a coining in Modern English in
the sense of “custom-made goods; made to order (as distinguished from
ready-made; an item on the shelf of a shop)” from the late sixteenth century Middle
English bespoken, the past-participle
adjective from bespeak (in its sense of
“arrange beforehand”), a prefixed variant of speak. The verb bespeak was
from the Middle English bispeken,
from the Old English besprecan (speak
about, speak against, complain), the construct being be- + sprecan (to speak). A common Germanic compound (the cognates
including the Old Saxon bisprecan, the
Dutch bespreken, the Old High German bisprehhan and the German besprechen) originally meaning “to call
out”, it evolved by the 1580s to enjoy a wide range of meaning in English,
including “speak up”, “oppose”, “request”, “discuss”, “arrange” and “order
(goods)”. By virtue of the different
application of the be- prefix, the connections between the various meanings of bespoke,
bespeaking; bespeak etc are thought at least very loose and it’s clear some arose
independently of others. Bespoke long
was used usually of tailored suits and other clothing but in recent decades it
has been applied (with some enthusiasm) to products as diverse as a one-off Rolls-Royce
and customized hacking software offered on the dark web. Bespeak was from the Middle English bespeken & bispeken, from the Old English bespecan
& besprecan (to speak about,
speak against, accuse of, claim at law, complain), from the Proto-Germanic bisprekaną (to discuss, blame), the
construct being be- + speak. It was cognate
with the Scots bespeke (to beseech,
speak or negotiate with), the West Frisian besprekke
(to discuss), the Dutch bespreken (to
discuss, review; debate) and the German besprechen
(to discuss, review, talk about). Bespoke
& bespoken are verbs & adjectives, bespeak is a noun & verb,
bespeaking is a verb, bespeaker & bespokeness are nouns and bespokely is an
adverb; the noun plural use is rare.
The be- prefix was from the Middle
English be- & bi-, from the Old English be-, from the Proto-Germanic bi- (be-), from the Proto-Germanic bi (near, by), ultimately from the
primitive Indo-European hepi (at,
near) and cognate with the Saterland Frisian, West Frisian, Dutch, German Low
German, German and Swedish be-. Although there remain in English many relics
of its use, (becalmed, beseige et al), the be- prefix has long ceased to be
productive. It was used to modify other
forms to create various meanings: (1) By, near, next to, around, close to
(beset), (2) Aound; about (belay, bestir, belive), (3) About, regarding,
concerning, over (bemoan, bewail), (4) On, upon, at, to, in contact with
something (behold, befall), (5) Off, away, over, across (behead, besleeve), (6)
As an intensifier (ie thoroughly, excessively; completely; utterly) (belabour,
bedazzle), (7) All around; about; abundantly; all over (belick, bescatter), (8)
Forming verbs derived from nouns or adjectives, usually with the sense of
"to make, become, or cause to be" (becalm, befriend) and (9) Used to
intensify adjectives meaning "adorned with something", often those
with the suffix -ed (now mostly archaic or informal) (besequined, befeathered,
beclawed, beloved).
Artist Louise Duggan (b 1974)
delivers the bespoke "mixed-media work" Blue Lips, commissioned by
Lindsay Lohan to hang in her villa in Dubai, June 2023.
Bespoke is an uncontroversial word if applied in the way
which for centuries mostly it was: clothing custom made for an individual,
based on measurements taken prior to the a tailor or seamstress cutting the
fabric. It was used also of the shoes
made by cobblers, the gloves sewed by glove makers, the hats created by
milliners and so on, all of whom had their own methods of maintaining their
customer records, those dealing with body parts which usually didn’t much
change able to use the same dimensions for decades; other had to re-measure
with some frequency. In the case of
cobblers, for regular customers they would keep a pair of wooden lasts which
emulated exactly the shape of the feet.
The synonyms for bespoke in this context included “custom-made”, “customized”,
“purpose-built”, “tailored” & “tailor-made” and the traditional antonyms
were “off the peg”, “off the rack” & “off the shelf”. In recent years, “bespoke” has become a marketing
term and stuff which is far from unique and in many cases produced in great
volume (perhaps with some minor change) is now often labeled “bespoke” and “bespoke
solution” is a favorite in the software business, whether it be something to
manage a hairdressing salon or code on the dark web supplied by Russian hackers
to the DPRK (North Korean) military for enable theft or covert operations.
Because of the way Google harvest it data, their ngrams
tracking trends in the use of words aren’t wholly accurate and even the degree
of accuracy can’t be assessed but the trend lines are thought vaguely
indicative and it appears bespoke came increasingly to be used in the late
twentieth century and the rate of increase has shown no signs of
subsiding. That may to some extent be
accounted for by Google’s methods or the publications over-represented in its
catchment but, impressionistically it seems plausible and in the US, scholars
by the 1990s were noting the way bespoke was tending to supplant the
traditional American “custom”, apparently because the word had appeal because
it conveyed “wealth and prestige” whereas custom had been devalued by its association
with things like hotted-up motor cycles.
If bespoke is uncontroversial when used of anything genuinely one-off,
the appropriateness when used of anything else needs to be assessed on a case
by case basis and because it’s so popular in the business of expensive cars,
they provide a good case-studies.
The Maserati 5000 GT (1959-1966)
1959 Maserati 5000 GT (Shah of Iran) by
Touring.
Before the Ayatollahs ran Iran, it was ruled by the Shah
(king) and he got a lot more fun out of life than his clerical successors,
noted especially as a connoisseur and of fast, exotic and expensive cars, his
collection including multiple models from Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz,
Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Maserati among others.
In 1958 he’d driven Maserati’s then popular 3500 GT but thought it
lacking in power and, because hundreds a year were sold to the (rich) public, a
bit common. Accordingly, after receiving
material advertising both the 3500 GT and the remaining 450S race cars the
factory wished to dispose of after withdrawing from racing, the shah decided he
wanted a combination of the two, the race engine in the road car. To have it created, essentially he sent
Maserati a blank cheque and asked them to call when it was ready. Delivered to the shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,
1919-1980) in 1959, it was almost a secret but when a second, commissioned by a
South African customer, was displayed at
the 1959 Turin Motor show, it generated such interest that Maserati were soon
fielding enquiries from rich commoners wanting what royalty had. Priced stratospherically however, there
weren’t enough rich folk on the planet to make it a viable option for their
production lines so it entered the catalogue as a bespoke item, Maserati
modifying the 3500 chassis which, frankly had been a bit over-taxed by the big
V8 and tweaking the engine still further, slightly increasing the capacity but
in a way that rendered it more docile, yet still a howler when stirred. The chassis appeared in the list and buyers
could choose their own coachbuilder and eventually eight produced their own
interpretations, the most numerous being by Carrozzeria Allemano which, over
the years, finished twenty-two, the Allemano cars thought also the most
alluring.
So the conclusion must be that the Shah’s original was
and remains a true bespoke creation because exclusively it was built for
him. Of the other 33 5000 GTs built,
although they were all variations on the theme and mechanically similar, no two
were exactly alike and each was built in response to an order from an individual
customer, some of whom specified certain touches. Given that, all probably deserve to be
regarded as bespoke though pedants might insist the chassis was a regular
production item and only the coachwork was truly bespoke. Few seem to agree and on the rare occasions the
things are offered for sale, they’re almost always described as “bespoke”.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom IV (1950-1956)
1950 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV pick-up truck.Among collectors, the Phantom IV has quite an allure
because it was one of the few cars produced in any number never offered for
sale to the general public, only 18 produced and available only to head of
state or crowned royalty (a distinction important in royal circles which has its
own pecking order). In a manner similar
to the Maserati 5000 GT, no two Phantom IVs were exactly the same although all
were built on substantially the same underpinnings (the only Rolls-Royce
passenger cars ever to use a straight-8).
Thus all should be though “bespoke” in the context of the industry but
there was one version which was radically different, a Phantom IV pick-up truck
(ute in Australian parlance) which was used by the factory to ferry various
bits and pieces from place to place. So
it’s a genuine one off pick-up truck but because it was just a functional
workhorse which existed only because an unsalable prototype chassis was
available, it’s never been regarded as something bespoke, the long ago scrapped
unique “shop ute” just a historic curiosity.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom V (1959-1968) & Phantom VI (1968-1990)
1973 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI "All Weather Cabriolet" (four-door convertible) by Fura (right) and 1971 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI DHC by Fura (left).
By comparison with the exclusive Phantom IV, its two
successors were almost mass produced, 1206 (832 of the Phantom V & 374 of the VI respectively) crafted
over three decades. In this case, it’s
thought only some should be thought truly bespoke because although there were a
few variations in the coachwork, many were substantially the same and its only
the ones with the greatest differences (notably the odd sedanca de ville, the handful of landaulets or
the other “state” cars with their elevated rooflines) which are usually thought
“bespoke” and even they weren’t unique things like the Phantom IVs. Two of the Phantom VI chassis however were indisputably
bespoke. By the 1970s, it was only the
big Phantom VI which Rolls-Royce still built on the separate chassis which made
bespoke bodies easier to mount so anyone wanting a really exclusive Rolls-Royce
had no other choice. Accordingly the Italian
house Fura fashioned two very big bespoke creations, one a drophead coupé (DHC, which by then the rest of the
world was calling a cabriolet or convertible), the other described as an "all weather cabriolet" (which eventually was re-fashioned as a four-door convertible). Both were on a scale not seen since seen since the 1930s and nothing like them has since been attempted. Because the limousine chassis was designed
for something long, narrow and tall, both the Fura cars were fundamentally
ill-proportioned although skilled photographers have managed to create pleasing
images by selecting just the right angle.
Flawed though they were, at the time there was probably nothing on four
wheels which so conveyed disposable wealth which, in many cases, is of course
often the essence of the bespoke. It was a good thing they made such an impression because presumably it dissuaded people from looking too closely: underneath the engineering was pure Phantom VI which meant drum brakes and a rear axle suspended on semi-elliptic (cart) springs so it was (refined) Ford Model T (1908) technology under all that leather and walnut. Such was the attention to detail those cart spring were encased in leather so those enjoying the seclusion of the rear compartment (trimmed usually in West of England cloth rather than the leather on which the chauffeur sat) weren't disturbed by any squeaks.
Consumption can be conspicuous yet still subtle, achieved usually
if a bespoke creation is both expensive and functional. The Mercedes-Benz 300 saloons and four-door cabriolet
of (W186 & W189 1951-1962) were large, stately and beautifully built and the
platform attracted coachbuilders who saw the potential for estate cars (station
wagons), ambulances and (especially) hearses.
Many were built and the hearses in particular typically aren't regarded
as bespoke because they were essentially catalogue items with little variation
between editions. Some of the rare
estates ("shooting brakes" to the English, "station wagons" in North America and for a time, "station sedans" if built by Holden, General Motors' (GM) Australian outpost) however have always been treated as bespoke even though from an
engineering point of view the changes were minimal and the styling hardly
imaginative. The reason for the
association seems to be that they “dripped money”; even to the uninformed they
were obviously expensive so it seems possible there is the matter of "bespoke by acclamation". Interestingly, in 1960 the factory did their
own one-off 300 Estate, this one a “telemetry car” built in the era before
sensors to travel at high speed on a test track, recording data from the
vehicle ahead. Styled in an almost
avant-garde manner with rear glass which curved into the roof, the factory
regarded it rather as Rolls-Royce treated their pick-up: a mule to be used
until something better came along. They
never called it bespoke.
Sir David Brown (1904–1993) liked his DB5 coupé (which
the factory in their English way called a "saloon") but found it too cramped comfortably
to accommodate his polo gear, shotguns and hunting dogs. Now, that would be called a “first world
problem” but because Brown then owned Aston Martin, he simply wrote out a work
order and had his craftsmen create a bespoke shooting brake (an English term
which means “station wagon owned by someone rich”) which they did by hand-forming
the aluminum with hammers over wooden formers.
It delighted him and solved his problem but created another because good
customers stared writing him letters asking for their own. Unfortunately, Aston Martin was at full
capacity building DB5s and developing the up-coming DB6 and V8 models. With a bulging order book, the resources didn’t
exist to add another niche model so the project was out-sourced to the
coachbuilder Radford which built a further 11 (and subsequently another 6 based
on the DB6). That Brown’s original car
was bespoke seems clear but the others are a gray area because the coachbuilder’s
records and assessments of the cars indicate they were identical in all but the
color of the paint and leather trim.
There may have been only 12 DB5s and 6 DB6s but by conventional
definition, they came of a production line, albeit a leisurely and exclusive
one so can all but the original be thought truly bespoke? According to the Aston Martin website, they
are bespoke so that’s presumably the last word on the subject.
The Smart Fortwo (top left) and some bespoke imaginings.
The happy combination of the internet, Photoshop and a
large cohort of gullible viewers some years ago encouraged the creation of a meme purporting
to be a survey of the bespoke carbon fibre bodies available to be bolted to the
diminutive Smart Fortwo (C451; 2007-2015).
Even a cursory look at the scale of the humans included in some of the photos
should have been enough for people to work out this was fake news but the
factory is said to have received “some” enquiries asking where the bespoke bodies
could be bought.
