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Suited for Success (February 4th 2011, 22 minutes)

Summary: Rarity is in a bind, promising custom clothing for her friends who have completely different ideas on what they want.

As I, and many of my friends, compete in historical clothing designs shows, this episode is a bit near and dear. Especially since several of those friends became Bronies after having watched this one.

Back to the Grand Galloping Gala.

Rarity's fine control over her telekinesis is pretty impressive.

I agree, that's horrible coloring for Twilight.

Does Rainbow ever use the door?

The Art of the Dress song has some hidden bits in it. Rarity sings about how important facing is, which is indeed very important for clothing. Easy to screw up with some fabrics, but damming under lights. Mention of a jewel neckline, which is a rounded neckline above the collarbone, as opposed to a bateau neck (or boat neck) that doesn't cover the collarbone, or a scoop neck which reveals cleavage. Rainbow's headdress is to 'lock into the crest', which is a horse term for that specific part of the mane. Rainbow, despite the art style, must appear quite muscular if Rarity is concerned that a blousing train will make her look like a tank.

Again, Rarity's telekinesis is really impressive. She can maintain lift and detail control over a lot of different objects. And bolts of fabric are quite heavy on top of that, so she's not lacking in power.

Ungrateful little... Sorry.

Fluttershy lists a lot of issues here. The armsscye may in fact be tight, but that's neither a middy collar nor a shawl lapel in any way. The pleats actually are slightly uneven but almost unnoticable unless you're looking for it. Toille in this context is a cheap linen cloth used to test patterns. Backstitch is a needlepoint stitch used for outlining, while topstitch is a decorative or reinforcing stitch run parallel to, but not directly on the hem or seam, but the blanket stitch is a structural edging stitch only used on heavy materials. They have completely different purposes and can't really be interchanged without changing the fundamental stitch. With respect to fashion Pret-a-Porter means 'off the rack' or factory made clothing, whereas Haute Couture means custom made without using sewing machines or sergers. There is actually no 'style' for haute couture, it's how the clothing is constructed completely by hand.

In other words, Fluttershy just spouted a collection of rather insulting nonsense. As much as that scene was probably supposed to show that Fluttershy has actual fashion knowledge, it actually plays like she reads too many fashion magazines without understanding the actual terms. Which, now that I think about it, is representative of some customers I've dealt with for my wife's custom shop.

Yup, this whole episode is a pretty accurate depiction of how the custom clothing business runs.

Turntables, remote controlled spotlights, and the microphone Spike is holding is a 1950's style.

Yes, those outfits are in fact horrible.

And now we have the payoff on the Fluttershy sewing rant. The payoff is fine, but the rant itself is still weird.

The real dresses are picking bits and pieces from a variety of appropriate styles, ranging from 1550 up to modern fashions, without tipping over into the stupid 'high fashion' nonsense that some people get caught up in. Applejack's outfit is... odd. Mainly the pointy-toe and heeled boots on just the front feet, which looks weird and must be unbalancing. And again with the saddle. I'm not convinced of the grape cluster on RD's neckline either, but likely that's a triangular cluster of jewels and should have more glitter to them. Other stand-outs is Twilight's Tudor high spread collar as worn by Mary I of England, and Pinkie Pie's 1960 tiny pillbox hat as worn by Jackie O.