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Introduction to Fashion Terms

Presentation · January 2024

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33751.85923

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Understanding fashion includes knowing many
specific fashion and apparel terms.
What is fashion??
The display of the currently popular style of clothing. A fashion is the
prevailing type of clothing that is favored by a large segment of the public
at any given time and influenced by Social, Political, Economical and
Artistic media.

What is Style??
A particular design, shape or type of apparel item. The style of the garment
is determined by the distinct features that create its overall appearance.

What is difference between style and fashion??

Styles come and go. Fashion is always here in some form. Fashion reflects
a continuing process of change in the styles of apparel that are accepted
What is Costume?
It is the distinctive style of dress of an individual or
group that reflects their class, gender, profession,
ethnicity, nationality or activity.

What is an Item?
It is an individual article or unit, especially one that
is part of a list, collection, or set.

What is Soft goods?

Textiles/ the subclass of nondurable goods as
represented especially by textile products, as
clothing, fabrics, and bedding.
What is Apparel?
Any and all men’s, women’s, and children’s wear
clothing is called as an ‘Apparel’

What is Garment?
Any article of apparel, such as a dress, suit, coat,
evening gown or sweater.

What is Garment components?

Any part of garment like sleeves, cuff, collar,
waistband, etc are called as Garment components
.
Wardrobe: all the apparel a person owns,
a wardrobe includes all of your garments
and accessories.

Accessories: are the articles needed to

complete or enhance your needs, like
belt, ties. Hats, jewelry, shoes, gloves etc
.
What is Co-ordinates?
A set of articles, as of clothing or luggage, design
ed to match or complement one other, as in style
or color.

What is Seperates?
women's clothing, such as skirts, shirts, and
trousers, that can be worn in different
combinations.
Silhouette: The shape of the clothing style.

It is formed by the width and length of the

neckline, sleeves, waistline and pants or skirts.

If you were to squint your eyes and look at a

suit, dress or coat, the outline (shape) of the
garment would show its silhouette.

Silhouettes are always changing in fashion.

The general direction that a silhouette takes
(wider-narrower-longer-shorter) shows a
fashion trend.
Silhouette of fashion cycle
Three specific silhouettes have separately rise, and fall in popularity;

STRAIGHT-TUBULER BELL BUSTLE-BACK FULLNESS

@BELL
Hi fashion:: High fashion are the
latest or newest fashions. They
are usually of top quality, with
fine workmanship and beautiful
fabrics. Because of the quality,
they are expensive. High fashion
styles originate from top name
designers in leading fashion
cities.
Details of high fashion filter
down into generally accepted
fashions.
 The term designer label refers to clothing, luxury automobile manufacturers and other personal
accessory items sold under an often prestigious status which is commonly named after a
designer.

Labels such as Gucci, Chanel, and Alexander McQueen are derived from the company's
founding designer, while others do not directly refer to the company's founder: for example, Miu
Miu, and Chloe may be referred to as designer labels.

Designer labels are not only restricted to the fashion industry. Many people consider designer
labels to be a status symbol.
They are expensive.
Clothes to cater to a wider range of customers, producing ready-to-wear clothes in
large quantities and standard sizes.

Less costly materials and construction techniques, creatively used, produce affordable
high street fashion. Standardized sizing is used, trims and notions are scaled down but
still try to keep the look of designer clothing.

Other names for mass-market:-

ready-to-wear, off the rack.
e.g.:-old navy, target

They copy trends and movies.

They don’t work on inspiration or any specific story.

Indian markets- Global desi, Westside….

Fad: A temporary, passing fashion. It is an item or look that has great appeal to many
people for a short period of time.
A fad becomes popular fast, and the dies out quickly.

Craze: Craze is like a fashion because it is a passing love for a new fashion. However,
this has a display of emotion or crowd excitement with it. Store have a hard time
keeping such items in stock because people are so eager to buy them.
Classic: An item of clothing that continues
to be popular even though fashion changes.

It is always acceptable.

Classics were originally fashion items, but

their general appeal and simple style lines
have kept them popular.
They can worn year after year.

Examples of classics: White dress shirts,

dark business suits, pleated skirts, loafer
shoes, blues jeans, and salwar kameez.
Knock offs or high street : lower priced copies
of garments.

They are produced in high quantity with lower

priced materials. Copies of Haute Couture
garments are made in quantity by high prices
manufacturer- they look like the original, but the
price had been reduced.
Some of the top high fashion brands are,
@ Zara
@ Mango
Pret a porter: often abbreviated RTW;
"off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual
use) is the term for factory-made clothing,
sold in finished condition, in standardized
sizes, as distinct from made to
measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a
particular person's frame.

Couture: the design and manufacture of

fashionable clothes to a client's specific
requirements and measurements.
What is be spoke?
So, a tailor who makes
custom clothes individually,
to your specific personal
measurements, design
requirements and creates a
custom one-of pattern for that
garment is called “bespoke”.
Haute couture: ”Finest Dress Making” in French. It
means the high fashion industry. It refers to a group
of firms or “Fashion house”, each with a designer
who creates original, individually designed fashions
only in France. The designer who owns the firm in
the couturier or maker.
Haute means "high" or "elegant." Couture literally
means "sewing,"

They are very expensive. They are constructed with

expensive fabric, and include a great deal of hand
work. They are some times;
a. Custom designed made for a specific person
b. Made to order, or custom made are not designed
for a particular person, although they are made
for a specific person. He or she places an order
after seeing a sketch or picture.
Avant garde: The most daring and wild designs. They are unconventional and
startling.
Atelier : A workshop or studio, especially one used by an artist or designer.

Boutique: a small shop selling fashionable clothes or accessories. a business serving a

sophisticated or specialized clientele.
Toile: an early
version of a finished
garment made up in
cheap material so
that the design can
be tested and
perfected. A
translucent linen or
cotton fabric, used
for making clothes.
 Draping: A technique of pattern making where the fabric is placed on the
dress form and pinned to create a design. It is more 3Dimentional.
Pattern making is the a pattern is the template from which the parts of a
garment are traced onto fabric before being cut out and assembled. .

Pattern grading is the scaling of a pattern to a different size by implementing

important points of the pattern using an algorithm in
the clothing and footwear industry.
 Trimmings: small decoration, especially for clothing eg. ruffles

 Details: small unique features in a garment

Woven: Woven fabric is a textile formed by
weaving. It is produced on a loom, and made of
many threads woven on a warp and a weft.

Knitted fabric is a textile that results

from knitting. Its properties are distinct
from woven fabric in that it is more flexible

Non woven: Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-

like material made from long fibers, bonded
together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent
treatment eg. felt
Motif: a decorative image or design, especially a
repeated one forming a pattern.

Repeat: Motif repeats to create a pattern.

Pattern: a repeated decorative design.

Tailored Garments:

• Made by first cutting garment pieces

then sewing them together to fit the
shape of a body.

• The first tailored garments were

made when the eyed needle was
invented, because seams could be
sewn together.

• Eg. Raymond’s Make to Measure

-Composite:
Made with a combination of
tailored and draped methods.

Garment parts are cut and sewn.

Some parts may fit close to body,

other parts may drape.

(Japanese kimono, tunics, bathrobe

etc)
Visual merchandising refers to anything that can be seen by
the customer inside and outside a store, including displays,
decorations, signs and layout of space.

The overall purpose of visual merchandising is to get

customers to come into the store and spend money.
Stylist: a designer of fashionable styles of clothing. a person whose job is to
arrange and coordinate food, accessories, hair, make up, clothes, etc. in a stylish
and attractive way in photographs or films, or advertisements.
Consumers: Those who buy and wear the
garments. Consumers purchase and use
apparel as well as other economics goods.
Consumers are very important in determining
what fashion will or will not become popular.

Retail Store: Sell to consumers. They

advertise and sell their items directly to the
general public. Retail stores include
department stores, chain and discount or
factory outlet.
Fit: The fit of a garment refers to how tight or loose it fits on
the person who is wearing it. A good fit means that the
garment is the right size and does not pull tightly or sag
loosely when worn. Garment can be designed to be loose,
semi fitted or fitted to achieve different fashion looks.

@ Seams are the lines of stitches that join two garment to

pieces together.

@ Darts are short, tapered, stitched areas that takes out excess
fabric in to it and enable the garment to fit the figure.

@ Bodice: the bodice of a garment is the area above the

waist, such as the upper part of a dress or jumpsuit. The
bodice is usually closely fitted and is distinguished by a seam
at the waistline.
Cad cam: CAD/CAM applications
are used to both design a product
and program manufacturing
processes.

Computer-integrated
manufacturing (CIM) is the
manufacturing approach of using
computers to control the entire
production process. This integration
allows individual processes to
exchange information with each
other and initiate actions
 There are two main seasons:- spring-summer, autumn-winter….

 International fashion week happen during August till September.

 Designers showcase their collection six months before the season.

 Buyers go to fashion shows & note down the details of dresses according to their
budget.
 Company’s profit or loss depends on buyer because they are the one responsible for
taking the dresses.
 Merchandiser’s are the people who tells what sells more. They are the one’s when
stock it. He plans the layout the store.

 Both require different fashion look & a new range of colors & fabric design for the
time of year.
• Light weight fabrics in summer..
• Heavy weight fabrics in winter..
Designers work a year in advance.

• In the spring the studio works for the spring summer of the fall year.

Each collection is researched so that all the items in it compliment each other, will be
in style, & have the particular look for which the company is known for

Predicting Trends:-
• A designers most difficult task is forecasting what will be in style for the coming
years. To do this, they know the past trends & look at repeats. They also purchase
High priced trend magazines. Additional they observe what succeeded with customers
in the past.
Theme:-
 A designer selects a theme that represents their collection. It can be a period in
history, a foreign place, a range of colors, a type of fabric.

 Designing:-
 Need to have inspiration.
 Can combine a collection.
 Designer make samples.
 After the groundwork is completed for the nature of the collection the designer
must decide how many and what type of garments should be included in the
collection.

 Usually they have a three month period to design, produce and publicize. The
collection in time for their fashion show.
 Press and buyers get their first look at the collection at the show.
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