off-the-peg dresses

Ok, so here's the strange things about Betts fashion: she's always dismissive of dresses that are "off-the-peg", but all of her characters wear them. I was inspired to write this by a description of the dress Amabel wears to eat dinner with Oliver in chapter 2: "...[Amabel] got into a jersey dress, which was an off the peg model, but of a pleasing shade of cranberry-red..." (pp. 43-44). The alternative to off-the-peg is couture, which by definition means custom fittings, if not custom-making and custom design. So all those times her heroines go on a shopping spree at Jaeger or Harrods, they're buying off-the-peg. The only heroines who wear handmade clothes are the poor ones, who have people in the village hand-make their dresses.