Bespoke

The word bespoke (/bəˈspoʊk/) has evolved from a verb meaning 'to speak for something' to its contemporary usage as an adjective that has changed from describing first tailor-made suits and shoes, and later, anything commissioned to a particular specification (altered or tailored to the customs, tastes, or usage of an individual purchaser), and finally to a general marketing and branding concept implying exclusivity and appealing to snobbery.'The B word has become an increasingly common branding lure employed by interior design companies, publishers, surgeons and pornographers. There are bespoke wines, bespoke software, bespoke vacations, bespoke barber shops, bespoke insurance plans, bespoke yoga, bespoke tattoos, even bespoke medical implants.' The word bespoke (/bəˈspoʊk/) has evolved from a verb meaning 'to speak for something' to its contemporary usage as an adjective that has changed from describing first tailor-made suits and shoes, and later, anything commissioned to a particular specification (altered or tailored to the customs, tastes, or usage of an individual purchaser), and finally to a general marketing and branding concept implying exclusivity and appealing to snobbery. Bespoke is derived from the verb bespeak, meaning to 'speak for something'. The particular meaning of the verb form is first cited from 1583 and given in the Oxford English Dictionary: 'to speak for, to arrange for, engage beforehand: to 'order' (goods).' The adjective 'bespoken' means 'ordered, commissioned, arranged for' and is first cited from 1607. According to Collins English Dictionary, the term is generally British English. American English tends to use the word custom instead, as in custom car or custom motorcycle. Nevertheless, bespoke has seen increased usage in American English during the 21st century. The word bespoke is most known for its 'centuries-old relationship' with tailor-made suits, but the Oxford English Dictionary also ties the word to shoemaking in the mid-1800s. Although it is now used as an adjective, it was originally used as the past participle of bespeak. According to a spokesperson for Collins English Dictionary, it later came to mean to discuss, and then to the adjective describing something that was discussed in advance, which is how it came to be associated with tailor-made apparel. The word was used as an adjective in A Narrative of the Life of Mrs Charlotte Charke, the 1755 autobiography of the actress Charlotte Charke, which refers to The Beaux' Stratagem as 'a bespoke play'. After that, the adjective was generally associated with men's tailor-made suits. Before about the 19th century, most clothing was made to measure, or bespoke, whether made by professional tailors or dressmakers, or as often, at home. The same applied to many other types of goods. With the advent of industrialised ready to wear clothing, bespoke became largely restricted to the top end of the market, and is now normally considerably more expensive, at least in developed countries. At some point after that, the word bespoke came to be applied to more than tailoring, although it is unclear exactly when. Mark-Evan Blackman of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York told the Wall Street Journal in 2012 that the 'bespoke proliferation may be tied to young Hollywood types becoming enamored with custom suits about a decade ago'. The Wall Street Journal article said that 'language purists' were not happy, while suit makers said the word had been 'bastardized'. In 1990, American writer William Safire, questioned in a New York Times article what had become of 'custom, a word fading from our fashion vocabulary in a blizzard of British usage'. In a play on words, he wrote of the snob appeal of the word: 'To be suitably trendy, bespeak to me of bespoke tailoring.' Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine wrote that the word was 'gaining in popularity', meaning 'the opposite of off-the-rack'. In its contemporary usage, it implies exclusivity, and is used as an aid in marketing and branding. A 2014 India Today article described bespoke as an emerging branding trend that marketers would need to embrace. A 2001 google search of 'bespoke and software' produced 50,000 hits, many not in the UK or the US. The New York Times quoted an Indian tech director as saying the 'global communications boom' contributed to a 'superset of English vocabulary'; another business writer explained that software companies in India were accustomed to adapting their language depending on the client, so that switching between bespoke software and custom software was the equivalent of switching between lift and elevator or queue and line. By 2008, the term was more often used to describe software, database and computer applications than suits, shirts or shoes. The BBC News Magazine wrote in 2008 that the word had increasingly been used to describe things other than websites, suits and shoes—like cars and furniture. Some examples of usage of the word are: