This episode is a legend among fans of the show, frequently topping "Best Of" lists for both Season One and the entire series overall. And it's an episode about a fashion show, one of the most stereotypical concepts in any show aimed at a young female audience. So how did this one manage to please so many? We'll find out as we look at "Suited for Success."
TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 1
Episode: 14
Written By: Charlotte Fullerton
First Aired: February 4, 2011
SUMMARY:
While preparing her own gown for the Grand Galloping Gala, Rarity is interrupted by Twilight and AJ, who have brought one of Twi’s old dresses to be fixed up for the event. Rarity is aghast that her friend would even think about wearing such a simple old thing to the most important event in Equestria, and even moreso when she hears that AJ is planning to just wear her old work duds. She offers to make each one an outfit, an offer she extends to the rest after Rainbow Dash crashes through her ceiling. Even better, they can all throw a fashion show afterwards to show off her designs, thus drumming up business for Carousel Boutique and spreading Rarity’s name out there.
One epic musical montage later, Rarity has prepared each of her friends a stunning outfit, perfectly tailored to each pony’s personality and character. Unfortunately, her friends all reject the outfits, saying that they weren’t what they were expecting. Rarity is hurt by this, but like a professional and good friend, takes the criticism anyway and offers to redo the outfits until her friends are satisfied. But when she shows Fluttershy her now gown, she gets a major dressing down that leaves her dumbstruck.
The rest of the ponies repeat this trend. Twilight demands astronomically-accurate constellations, Pinkie keeps flip-flopping on what she wants, AJ places way too much emphasis on practicality, Fluttershy demands an extraordinarily complex and expensive design for her free dress, and Rainbow Dash only offers vague demands and requests. By the time Rarity finishes, the dresses are absolute travesties, but her friends are satisfied, so she’s happy. That is, until Spike reveals that he invited Hoity Toity, a big-shot fashion designed from Canterlot, to attend the fashion show.
Needless to say, the show is a disaster. All of the dresses are absolutely hideous, and Hoity Toity loudly condemns Rarity’s sense of fashion before the entire town. This finally clues the others in that they have no fashion sense, but it’s too late; Rarity has locked herself in her room in response, her career is in shambles, and the only reason she hasn’t placed herself into exile is because she can’t decide on how to pack. Fortunately, Fluttershy knows how to sew, so they use her skills and Rarity’s original designs to finish her own gown, which had been neglected because of this mess. This lifts Rarity out of the dumps slightly, but she’s still a laughingstock.
Fortunately, they planned for that, too, and managed to get Hoity Toity to stay an extra day. With a little help from Rarity’s magic, they manage to pull off a stunning display, which wins Rarity the respect and praise of Hoity Toity. Twilight writes to Celestia that she’s learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth, while Hoity offers to show off the dresses in his own boutique in Canterlot…provided Rarity can make a dozen copies of each one by next Tuesday.
REVIEW:
“Suited for Success” is the second part of the Gala story arc, and by far the one least connected to the others. The only thing of importance here is the premiere of the new dresses, which finally move away from the saddle motif they were trying to cram into the earlier episodes and into the more frilly attire the franchise is known for. We even open with Rarity telling Opalescence (in her first appearance) about how stunning her gown will be while torturing the poor cat. Needless to say, Opal may be a hyper-aggressive jerk to everypony, but after seeing what Rarity does to her, it’s not without reason.
The first act opens with Twilight and AJ hovering over Rarity and talking behind her back while she’s working, resulting in a loveably passive-aggressive response:
I also love her reaction to Twilight showing up with an old, tattered dress for the Gala; she treats it like her friend had just committed the greatest sin known to pony kind. Applejack’s plan to wear work duds is even worse, but since her plan for the Gala was to sell apples and make bits for the family farm, it only makes sense that she wouldn’t think about dressing for propriety. Rainbow Dash crashing through the ceiling was a little forced, but it was also funny, and I’m actually glad we have a show where the jock character doesn’t immediately object to something girly on the grounds that it’s girly. And so we have our fashion show episode.
One of the problems with “fashion shows” in most shows aimed at young girls is that they’re frequently just thrown in there so the characters can wear flashy, ridiculous outfits and sell more toys. This episode, however, very quickly sidesteps the problem by focusing on the business aspect. Rarity is being generous in giving away the dresses, and the fashion show is designed to be fun for all of them, but at the same time, she knows a good showing will improve her boutique’s standing and serve as great advertising. In other words, it utilizes both the business and social aspects of the show to great effect.
The song, “Art of the Dress,” is by far one of the best tunes of the first season. While “Winter Wrap-Up” was the first episode with a full-on song (not just Pinkie rattling off some musical ramblings), I found this piece far more impressive. Through the song, Rarity describes each and every dress, pointing out why she’s making every decision. They even include some bits of horse anatomy, and unlike flanks (which are the horse’s sides and not their rears), they’re actually fairly accurate this time, and all the parts mentioned would have to be covered by the dresses. And just in case you forgot, this is a male in his mid-twenties praising a song about dress making. That alone is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the entire production team.
Of course, it wouldn’t really be a good show if that was the end of it, so her friends reject the marvelous outfits for the vaguest of reasons. Rarity is, of course, crestfallen that her hard work was tossed aside, but she’s still a professional, so she takes their criticism and offers to redo everything. This is one of the things that helps make this episode even better, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Fluttershy’s massive lecture on Rarity’s sewing techniques is both astonishingly funny and surprisingly awesome. Being Fluttershy, she starts out polite and willing to accept the dress, but Rarity sees through her immediately and asks her what she really thinks. And then, this happens…
I love this rant for a couple reasons. First, it’s actually fairly accurate in terms of sewing techniques, patterns, and styles. Second, it shows a surprising amount of depth for Fluttershy; up to this point, all she was good at was taking care of animals and looking adorable, but here she’s about as knowledgeable as Rarity in these things. Third, I love Rarity’s shocked reaction, as it seems to work on two levels. First, she’s amazed that her friend found so many things to complain about. Second, she’s just surprised that Fluttershy even knows this much to begin with. And of course, it ends with the Pegasus slipping right back to being Fluttershy.
This all leads back to the reprise of “Art of the Dress,” now with a decidedly darker tone to it. Throughout the song, we get brief interstitials of the others offering their own demands, critiques, and general nonsensical requests, all of which Rarity, as a professional, has to deal with. And thus we get to the big thing that makes this episode great: the fashion show is ancillary to a general message about the creative process in general and how those around the creator can frustrate them. Rarity has a distinctive vision for each dress, but all of her friends want something completely different, and start picking away at what she wanted before replacing it with something significantly worse. By the end, all of her original vision has been stripped away, leaving her an exhausted pony with five hideous outfits.
This could be applied to any field. Television executives force show creators to make ridiculous changes for seemingly arbitrary reasons. (Just look at what Faust and her team went through with the E/I rating for an example, or even to Princess Cadance becoming an Alicorn for the Season Two finale.) People criticize art and music for much of the same reasons. Literature is filled with thousands of critics who just love to pick apart things. Even fanfiction has its fair share of meddling from editors, prereaders, and just fans in general. I mean, can you imagine what would happen if some flankhole intruded on someone else’s work, wrote numerous complaints about how wrong it was, and then forced the writer to change everything because he’s a blind, intolerant nincompoop who wouldn’t know good work if it slapped him in the face before storming off like a toddler having a temper tantrum?
…I need to stop doing that.
Anyway, the Mane 6 (minus Rarity) all love the new outfits, and she’s ready to call it a day. After all, her friends are happy, and that’s all that matters. But then we get the real wrench in the works, as Spike mentions the show to Hoity-Toity. Now that Rarity’s national image is in jeopardy, she’s suddenly feeling much less confident about the show. As for Hoity himself…I got nothing. He’s really not so much a character here as a plot device. I also love how it’s not until the show’s in full swing that the ponies realize they have no fashion sense and have ruined Rarity’s career. Well, except for Spike, who is utterly incapable of reading a situation and calls Rarity out for further humiliation. Other than that, this is also the first appearance of DJ-PON3, or if you prefer, Vinyl Scratch. A two-second, voiceless cameo, and she’s now one of the most popular characters in the fandom. Bronies are deliciously weird.
So with her career dead, her reputation in shambles, and all because she wanted to do something nice for her friends, Rarity finally cracks. I just love this scene from start to finish. Her voice seems to slip back and forth between her normal accent, to an exaggerated version, to finally turning into Greta Garbo right before breaking into tears. Tabitha St. Germain just unleashes the hog here, and it is delicious. Rainbow Dash being brutally honest is also perfect, as is Fluttershy’s recommendation that they all start panicking (which is her answer to everything). And finally, we have one of my favorite lines in the show, courtesy of Pinkie Pie:
Rarity trying to plan out what to pack for going into exile is mostly a continuation of the earlier breakdown, but still, it’s hilarious. It does, however, lead into one of my very minor nitpicks about the episode. The ponies lure Rarity out of her shop by stranding Opal in a tree, and when she comes down to rescue her psychopathic little kitty, they surprise her with her neglected dress, now finished thanks to Fluttershy’s sewing skills. This is enough to at least break Rarity out of her funk a little. All that is perfectly fine. Where I have a little issue, though, is how they managed to get the dress (which was in the same room Rarity had barricaded herself in) out without her noticing. Maybe they just waited until she was on the can.
The second fashion show is just beautiful. It actually makes sense that Rarity’s magic could be used to augment a showing such as this, especially with her entire future on the line. Each of the outfits is perfectly introduced, complete with little vignettes that sum up each character and design perfectly. Hoity’s reactions are also enjoyable; my favorites included him getting hungry for apple products and experiencing a jump scare during Rainbow Dash’s introduction.
The moral itself, outside of the pun, is a good one, and something everyone should now. And it’s also nice to see Rarity’s career progress, even if the ending is a wah-wah moment.
CONCLUSION:
“Suited for Success” is one of the best episodes of the series. It manages to strike every right note, keeps everypony in perfect character, and above all else, manages to make an insightful and entertaining story out of a fashion show. For many, this is the point where FiM officially took off and became the excellent series it is today; for me, this is just when the show’s rising star fully cemented itself. All in all, one of my top five favorite episodes, and one I immensely enjoy rewatching.
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