Can you define ‘bespoke’…

This has proven to be quite a sticking point recently. What does bespoke mean? Well, the Oxford dictionary defines it as, ‘made to order’. But in daily vernacular, especially with regard to furniture, it really depends on who you ask. To a clever salesman, trying to shift a stock of standard items, the term bespoke will be used to sell a customer the idea that those standard units can be sold with a door or handle of their choice- somehow making them unique. In fact, the items they are selling  aren’t unique at all and certainly aren’t bespoke- having been made long before the customer even thought they might be needed, so can’t be justifiably described as ‘made to order’.  Yet everyday more and more  items of furniture are being advertised as bespoke as the term is hijacked by clever marketeers, anxious to link their products and companies with the idea of something designed and considered. 

Few people would argue that Ikea is bespoke and yet the stock they hold and the degree to which it allows the customer to have a limited number of options is no different to how a great many so called ‘bespoke’ companies operate. The idea that a kitchen or bedroom from a DIY shed is bespoke is nonsense. Choosing from a set range of units, one can clearly plan a layout that is to some degree functional, (assuming that the lack of control over size is not an encumbrance).  However, this furniture is often marketed as ‘bespoke’ purely on the basis that you can specify a finish, choose sinks, taps, handles and worktops and create something unique to yourself- in that sense every kitchen designed for a space is bespoke, as it is unique to that space!  Even some of the more expensive European made kitchen units fall foul of meeting the criteria intended for furniture that is bespoke made, adhering to the same business model as many of the sheds, only with vastly improved quality.  The ubiquity of the term within the industry would seem to give customers the impression that there are hundreds of bespoke makers out there, but the truth is that there are actually only a very few British owned businesses whose products are designed and made within the UK. Even Terence Conran had much of his range made abroad until recently.

Ask yourself this- is the company you are buying from making the furniture from raw materials that they sourced themselves,  to dimensions that would render the pieces useless to another customer’s requirements and in a style and finish that is wholly unique to a design brief you have agreed in advance? If the answer is no, then it is unlikely to be bespoke.