Suited For Success

Suited For Success is the fourteenth episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, season one. In this episode, Rarity wants to make party dresses for her friends for the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala.

Summary
The episode begins in the Carousel Boutique. Rarity is busy preparing a dress for herself for the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala with her cat Opalescence involuntarily "helping" her. As she's making the finishing touches on it, she's suddenly interrupted by Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, who have come to have a button fixed on Twilight's gala dress. Seeing Twilight's clothes too old to be worn anymore, Rarity insists on making her an entirely new dress instead, as well as one for Applejack. Although the farm pony preferred to wear her work clothes, she was reminded that the party was a formal event, prompting her to have them appropriately "spruced up". After seeing Rainbow Dash crash into her workshop, the elegant unicorn gets an idea. She offers to make them all new party dresses, including ones for Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, while deciding to set up a fashion show in Ponyville to show them off. While Applejack and Twilight are unsure of her making such a promise, Rarity assures them all that she can handle it.

After some gathering, sewing, measuring, and detailing (with a song of "Stitching it together"), Rarity invites them all to see the finished set. Each pony are crafted a dress made to match her own unique personality. They were surprised at these amazing new dresses, but something was... wrong. Hesitant to find the right words for their criticism (although Rainbow Dash stated that hers wasn't "cool" enough), Twilight concludes that the ensembles are "not exactly what they had in mind". Rarity is disappointed in hearing this, but the generous unicorn keeps a straight face and promises them that she'd be willing to make them all "110%" satisfied, as she plans to craft a new, new set, as opposed to the ones she declared as a "first pass". When they wanted to make sure they weren't going to cause any problems, she once more insisted that she wanted to make them all perfect.

Time passes and, this time, she invited each pony individually to check on their new dresses. Fluttershy tries on hers and says that she "loved" it and thought it was "nice". When Rarity told Fluttershy that she should just tell her what she really meant, the confused pegasus quickly said that she "liked" it. Frustrated with her friend not able to make a solid opinion, Rarity pushes her into saying what she really meant; if there were any problems with it. Hesitant at first, Fluttershy finally bombards her with some surprisingly specific details about what was wrong with the dress she was wearing, concluding that the whole thing was not "Haute Couture" ("High Fashion"). In the end, she reminds the unicorn that "whatever she wanted to do was fine". The others are also told to give some details on what they would want for their clothes: Twilight wants perfect constellations, Pinkie wants balloons, candy and streamers, Applejack wants her clothes to be weather-friendly (asking for galoshes to boot), and Dash simply wants hers to be cooler or, in her case, "20% cooler". While Rarity was following their instructions to the letter, she was becoming increasingly more stressed as the time of the show was drawing near.

When she finally finished, she believed that the new dresses were downright ugly. And she still needed to finish hers...

Thankfully, all her friends are satisfied with the perfect dress set, meeting all their expectations. Rarity seems doubtful of her accomplishment (even her cat knew that she didn't like them), but is glad they loved them. Just as she is relieved that her job was done, Spike arrives to bring her some exciting news: a major representative of the fashion world from Canterlot, named Hoity Toity, has heard about her fashion show (Spike confessed that he may had mentioned it to him), and was coming to check it out. A positive feedback from a hot-shot pony critic would mean big business for Rarity's shop. This should have made her happy. Instead, she was completely horrified that such a guest was coming to see her latest work.

The night of the show takes place, and the pony critic arrives in front of the stage, along with everyone in Ponyville. Rarity is already on pins and needles, but believed that if her friends liked it, so would he. This was not to be, however, as after an introduction by Spike, the crowd is shocked to see that the styles of the "perfect" dresses were... not what anyone had expected, and even more so of the pony who made them. Rarity's friends proudly strut across the stage, but after noticing the audience awkwardly staring in confusion, while looking at themselves in the process, it is clear that they might have gone overboard on the specifics. Hoity proceeds to make the harshest form of criticism possible, going as far as to describe them as "a piled-on mishmash of everything but the kitchen sink" (the sink, itself, Rarity decided not to include before the event). He deemed the outfits the ugliest he had ever seen. Rarity's fashion show was an absolute disaster. It did not help that Spike cheers Rarity on to present herself in front of the perplexed crowd.

"I used to be somepony! I used to be respected! I made dresses - beautiful, beautiful dresses! But now, everypony is laughing at me! I'm nothing but a laughing stock! *sob*"

- Rarity

She locks herself in the the bedroom of her shop for the next few days, racked with shame and humiliation from the fashion rep's review and Ponyville's citizens laughing at her. Unable to get her out of the room, they try to figure out what to do to save their friend from, in Pinkie's words, "becoming a Crazy Cat Lady" (despite the fact that she had one cat at the moment). They then notice Rarity's unfinished dress inside her workshop.

While Rarity begins contemplating leaving Ponyville in self-exile, she saw her cat stuck in a tree. She rushed outside only to discover Dash had placed the cat up there to draw the depressed unicorn out of hiding and show her what they were up to. Thanks to Fluttershy's knowledge of sewing, she and the other ponies present Rarity's finished dress as a way of apologizing to her for what they put her through. Rarity is surprise that they were able to complete it and pleased at the quality, saying that it was exactly how she imagined it. They even managed to convince Hoity Toity to come back and give their friend another chance. During a private fashion show inside the Boutique, Rarity uses her "first draft" ensembles for her friends to wear. The pompous critic is so impressed with this particular set that he is amazed the dresses were designed by the same pony.

As the episode ends, Twilight and Spike issue their latest report; Rarity learned that she can not always please all of her friends, and Twilight learned to appreciate a friend's gift and not be overly critical about it. Hoity Toity offers to feature Rarity's work for his Canterlot boutique... and asked her to make a dozen of each within a week.

Quotes

 * Rarity: [sing-song voice] I-dea! I'll make you an outfit for the Gala, too, Rainbow Dash.
 * Rainbow Dash: Outfit for the what now?


 * Applejack: So all you have to do is make a different, stunning, original, amazing outfit for one, two, three, four, five... plus yourself, six ponies? And "lickety split"?
 * Rarity: Oh, Applejack. You make it sound as if it's going to be hard.


 * Applejack: They sure are... uh... somethin'...
 * Twilight: Yes! Something!
 * Pinkie Pie: I like "something"! Something's my favorite!
 * Fluttershy: It's... nice.


 * Rarity : Tell me tell me tell me tell me TELL ME!
 * Fluttershy: All right. Since you really wanna know... *inhales* The armscye's tight, the middy collar doesn't go with the shawl lapel, the hems are clearly machine-stitched, the pleats are uneven, the fabric looks like toile, you used a backstitch here when it clearly called for a topstitch, or maybe a traditional blanket stitch, and the overall design is reminiscent of prêt-à-porter and not true French haute couture... But... uh... you know... um... whatever you want to do is fine...


 * Rainbow Dash: What?
 * Rarity: Aren't you going to tell me to change something too?
 * Rainbow Dash: No, I just want my dress to be cool.
 * Rarity: Do you not like the color?
 * Rainbow Dash: The color's fine, just make it look cooler.
 * Rarity: Do you not like the shape?
 * Rainbow Dash: The shape's fine, just make the whole thing you know, cooler... It needs to be about 20% cooler.


 * Pinkie Pie: Rarity? You OK in there? You haven't come out for days...
 * Rarity: I'm never coming out! I can't show my face in Ponyville ever again! I used to be somepony! I used to be respected! I made dresses - beautiful, beautiful dresses! But now, everypony is laughing at me! I'm nothing but a laughing stock!
 * Twilight Sparkle: You're not a laughing stock, Rarity.
 * Rainbow Dash: [rather loudly] She kind of is.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Shh! Come on out and talk to us...
 * Rarity: Leave me alone! I want to be alone! I want to wallow in... whatever it is that ponies are supposed to wallow in! ...Do ponies wallow in pity?... Oh, listen to me! I don't even know what I'm supposed to wallow in! I'm so pathetiiic!


 * Applejack: Well we can't just leave Rarity like this...
 * Pinkie Pie: She'll become a crazy cat lady!
 * Twilight Sparkle: She only has one cat.
 * Pinkie Pie: Give her time...


 * Rarity: Exile... I guess, technically, I'd have to move away to live in exile. Where would I go? And what would I pack? Oh, it's going to take me forever to do all of that packing. What are you supposed to pack when you go into exile? Are you supposed to pack warm?


 * Rarity: HUH?!
 * Pinkie Pie: We all finished your dress for you!
 * Applejack: Thanks to Fluttershy's freaky knowledge of sewin'...
 * Fluttershy: Do you like it?
 * Rarity: Like it? Like it?!
 * Fluttershy: Uh oh. She doesn't like it...
 * Rarity: No, I don't like it... I LOVE it!

Gallery



 * Suited For Success image gallery

Trivia

 * The title of this episode has a double meaning; the word 'suited' here both refers to the original phrase dress for success as well as the meaning of 'being appropriate'.
 * According to Jinratgeist, an animator for My Little Pony Friendship is Magic at Top Draw Animation, the original title of this episode was "Dress for Failure", a more immediate reference to dress for success.
 * Rarity's Dressmaking Song is based on the song Putting it Together by Sondheim, from the musical "Sunday in the Park With George". The original song is about an artist complaining about people interfering with his work. This is the first musical number that takes after Sondheim's work, the other one being The Gala Song. It is the first song sung by all the leading character ponies since Winter Wrap Up.
 * Toile is a cheap cloth used by designers to test a pattern; in the past it meant "linen cloth" and could include painting canvas. Prêt-à-porter refers to "ready to wear" clothing, while haute couture refers to custom-made clothing, which is what Rarity does. The last explains her reaction to Hoity Toity's "order" at the end of the episode.
 * The sequence where Rarity has locked herself in her room and says "I want to be alone" with an Eastern European accent echoes the famous phease associated with Greta Garbo.
 * The sequence where Rarity is considering exile and says, "Where would I go? And what would I pack?" is likely a reference to Gone With The Wind, a 1939 classic film, where Scarlett O'Hara says "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" in a time of distress.
 * The Gala dresses appear again in The Best Night Ever. They may also be glimpsed in the background of other episodes, such as Green Isn't Your Color and A Bird in the Hoof.
 * Hoity Toity bears a strong resemblance to Karl Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director for the Chanel fashion house.
 * Rainbow Dash's "perfect" dress's headdress resembles the shape of the helmet of the comic book character "The Rocketeer".
 * Pinkie Pie's line "I love something. Something's my favorite." may be a reference to the line "I love smiling. Smiling's my favorite." from the movie Elf.
 * The background vocals that sing with Rarity during the Dressmaking Song reprise were done by Twilight Sparkle's voice actor, Tara Strong.
 * The dress Twilight asks to get fixed is also a dress Rarity put on Twilight in the first episode. The same dress also appears in Green Isn't Your Color as Rarity is throwing dresses everywhere behind a curtain in the park.
 * Despite Pinkie Pie requesting streamers on her dress, they aren't actually on the dress when it's shown.
 * The musical opening of Rarity's second fashion show bears striking resemblance to the opening of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * During the second part of Rarity's song, when Pinkie Pie says she wants her dress to have lollipops, Rarity seems uneasy at the request yet lollipops end up on the final dress to be worn by Pinkie Pie and on the first dress she designed, but strangely enough did not appear on the 'custom' designed dress.