The Zipper

If you read this blog than you know that my wife recently attended the Grammy Awards. You also know that this blog is mostly about engineering and technology. So, you ask, what does the Grammys have to do with engineering? Before we get into that issue let’s point out that from an engineering perspective it is always important to design things, whatever they may be, with intelligence and build them with good quality materials. Especially, when it comes to a critical design point where a failure is not a good thing. We could be talking about something like the O-ring on a shuttle booster tank but I don’t want to get that complex right now. I am talking about a simple little zipper. My wife went shopping and came home with a new dress by Chloe. Now, I ask you, would you make a $2000.00 dress and put in a $0.10 zipper? Well, Chloe does just that. Apparently, Chloe uses zippers that are so cheap they break taking the garment off the hanger. Imagine someone taking a new dress out of its bag only to find that the zipper is broken. Not good. The funny part is that at the Grammys my wife saw Paul McCartney whose daughter Stella McCartney trained Phoebe Philo the current designer at Chloe. My wife was wearing Gucci.