24/11/10

It-bag


Designer handbag

Wiki says the common term was coined in the 1990s with the explosive growth of the handbag market in fashion. Designers vied to produce one bag that would sell hundreds of thousands of units by becoming the bag “of the moment” — a single handbag style that would spread like wildfire in popularity through the intertwined worlds of fashion and celebrity, aided by clever or just plain lucky marketing.

Le it-bag sono le borse ostentate al braccio delle star, perennemente in lista d'attesa nelle boutique e copiatissime sulle bancarelle. Il termine fu copiato negli anni '90con l'esplosiva crescita del mercato delle borse griffate. I designer creano un modello che venderà migliaia di unità diventando la borsa del momento.

Fonte: Englishfor

Thinspiration


A blend of “thin” and “inspiration”, the term (sometimes used in its shortened form “thinspo”) refers to apparently healthy messages, images and music inviting people to get thin and fit, but in the end only intended to inspire weight loss.

Blend di thin e inspiration, il termine, spesso abbreviato in thinspo, apparentemente sembra inviare messaggi positivi invitanti al dimagrimento per trovare forma fisica. In realtà, tali messaggi, dove alle parole si associano musica, fotografie e immagini, spingono mentalmente alla pura perdita di peso. Sono molto comuni in rete e soprattutto nei social network, nonché ovviamene diffusi nelle comunità di persone affette da disturbi alimentari quali anoressia e bulimia, alle quali la perdita di peso viene presentata non tanto come malattia, ma piuttosto come una scelta, come uno stile di vita. Vengono anche suggerite idee quali autocontrollo, successo, perfezione e solidarietà. A volte vengono anche proposte immagini di persone fortemente obese per provocare un senso di disgusto nelle persone che cercano fonti di ispirazione, vale a dire un “sostegno nella loro spasmodica ricerca di magrezza”.

Published on:
Englishfor

Source:
Encyclopedia

Wikipedia

Independent

22/11/10

4D Man

A new “archetypal” 21st-century man.

Commenting in The Guardian on the launch of Bauer Media’s men’s weekly magazine, Gaz7etta, Kevin Braddock wrote:

According to research videos published in July, Bauer had identified a new archetype of 21st-century masculinity: “4D Man.Not some undiscovered anomaly in the space-time continuum, 4D Man is in fact a male between 15 and 40 who is “confident, individual and has varied interests and passions.” A Bauer spokesperson told Media Week that 4D man is “not as tribal as his predecessors, the metrosexual and the lad, where you either were one or you weren’t.” He is also “increasingly interested in culture and is more health-conscious.”

Noting that this is not “the first to attempt to redefine masculinity in the media age,” Braddock highlighted a number of other terms associated with “the elusive demographic known as ‘men’”:

We’ve read about the urban playboy, the new lad, the soft lad, the metropolitan and the Spurmo (Single Proud Unmarried Man Over Thirty). There was also the himbo, the mIMbo (male instant-messaging boy) and the notion of “mandom” – a kind of girl power for men who use hair gel.

Whether you considered yourself to be more of a “retrosexual” than an “übersexual” (the latter featuring in a 2005 report by advertising agency JWT ominously entitled The Future of Men), or even a “pomosexual,” we were apparently living through a “menaissance” in which we indulged in “manscaping” (ie, shaving and washing). Even straight-as-a-die A-types could enjoy an unashamed “bromance,” which in everyday language is known as a friendship.

source: Shott's Vocab

See also: Watch your Manguage

21/11/10

Handbag Fashion

Each decade has its own mood, when we look back on the fashion trends that defined it.

When we think of the 1980s fashions we remember padded shoulders, bright colours, gold and glitz, Princess Di and Maggie Thatcher! The 1960s were flower power and mini skirts, new freedoms for the young, think Twiggy, Lulu and The Beatles. Go back to the 1950s and women’s fashion themes were drawn from glamorous Hollywood and the stars of the silver screen: Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.

The new Millenium has seen a huge rise in women’s passion for handbags, this time carrying young women along with the enthusiasm too, with designer bags becoming coveted status symbols and handbag collections becoming de rigueur for any woman of style. Big bags, re-emerged as a fashion trend in response to the growing amount of things women need to carry with them today, rushing between work, business and leisure activities with all the technological gadgets they need to lug with them, Macbook or laptop, iphone and iPod.


If you follow the evolution of handbag style, going hand in hand with mainstream fashion, through the twentieth and twenty first centuries, you start to see patterns. As the role of women in society has evolved, the handbag has evolved and adapted to their changing needs.

Dips in the global economy are reflected by more practical, restrained handbag styles, boom periods by expansive extravagance.


Fashion trends do seem inextricably linked to the global economy and a pattern has emerged through the decades of the last century.

A time of recession and financial crisis results in more practical and restrained, classic styling, whereas a boom sets flamboyance free in women’s fashion, for fancy dress fashion trends and elaborately glitzy and whimsical extravagance.


See also:

It-bag
, must-have

Hemline Index

Heel heights grow during Recession

Source: Gleni

Roar power

Termine coniato dal FinancialTimes, il maculato come antidoto giusto contro il minimalismo.

Fonte: Corriere della Sera 23 ottobre 2010

Fashbassador

A blend of "fashion" and "ambassador", was invented for the founder of Jimmy Choo,
Tamara Mellon, who with 31 others has been appointed a business
ambassador by the British Prime Minister David Cameron.



18/11/10

Statement Necklace


A bold and therefore eye-catching piece of jewelry worn to spruce up an outfit. Not-so-subliminal message: I have entered the room!





Source: MyStyle





Bandage Dress


Mummy-inspired dress first created by Hervé Léger in the '80s, then resurrected in 2007 by Max Azria, characterized by elastic strips.





Source: MyStyle





Colorblock


A design consisting of bold swatches of hues that is periodically in fashion though it often appears in horizontal stripes, which everyone knows are a big no-no—they make you look wide!


Source: MyStyle





Cutout


Not to be confused with "cut it out," though we wish some of these designers would in fact cut it out, when it comes to chopping up fabric to show off patches of skin!




Source: MyStyle





Ditsy Print


Teensy floral patterns conjuring up a sweet, innocent image.




Source: MyStyle





Spanx

21st-century girdle made from nylon, Lycra and spande

Source: MyStyle




Foxing


A piece of fabric that is sewn (overlaid) over another part of the boot, simply for decoration.





Source: MyStyle





Sweethheart Neck


A graceful, open yoke, shaped like the top half of a heart.




Source: MyStyle





Diamond Neck


A diamond-shaped cut-out that fastens at the front or back neckline.




Source: MyStyle





Burnout

A fabric with an alternating solid and sheer design, often in a floral or animal print.

Source: MyStyle




Broomstick Dress


A dress or skirt characterised by numerous pleats and crinkled material.




Source: MyStyle





Bias Cut

The cut diagonally across the grain of a fabric. It is used to create garments that follow the body curves closely.



Source: MyStyle





15/11/10

Yama girl

Nickname of the growing number of women who are taking to the hills of Japan wearing short pants or fleece skirts with leggings and designer trekking boots. See also "mountain girl".

read more on: The Global Language Monitor

12/11/10

Cougar lift


Cosmetic surgery performed on a middle-aged woman to enhance her prospects of dating younger men.

source:Word Spy



08/11/10

New additions to fashion dictionary

Key Look: Definitive style of a season.

Mock Croc: Fake or faux crocodile, in any rendition, crocodile is the texture of choice for fall.

Pleather: A hybrid fabrication of plastic + leather.

Kitten Heel: Sculpted, ladylike shoe heel of about 2 inches in height.

Genius: The most sublime perfection. As in, "Helmut's modern sense of simplicity is genius."

Screams: Blatantly sources a dated style. Heard on a television makeover segment, "Kill that thick black hose, it screams early 90's."

Flawless: More beautiful than nature could render, thanks to a good foundation (cosmetic base) and fabulous makeup artist.


source: Focus on Style



Watch you manguage

English has a rich history of so-called ‘man-words’: jocular terms that use man as a prefix or as part of a compound or blend (portmanteau, if you like).

This formula has been very productive in recent years: the Urban Dictionary lists hundreds of man-words and man-phrases, such as man hug, man-girlfriend, man-tourage, and manbroidery. An initial m can be enough to manify a word – as in mandals, a contraction of man-sandals; mirdles, which are girdles for men; and Movember, a November-moustache charity event (though its m comes from moustache rather than man). There’s a related boom in bro-words, like bromance and bro-ordinate.

Man-words tend to be playful, if not downright daft, and they often imply an element of irony and self-deprecation. Man flu, for example, is a common cold whose male sufferer exaggerates the ailment. Many man-phrases serve as one-off gags or niche slang, but others attain quite a high profile. Man fur and mimbo were popularised by Seinfeld; mancation, a vacation for males only, spread swiftly after appearing in the Hollywood comedy The Break-Up; and mancession, an economic recession affecting men in particular, made headlines in the international press.

Some man-words denote commercial products aimed principally at metrosexual men. “Girl stuff, but for guys” is how Mark Peters described these man-brands and mancessories in an article tracing the history and usage of man-words. Nancy Friedman, who admits to “a bit of a mania for man-words”, has written about many of them on her blog Fritinancy. Manbags, manscara and mantyhose are unlikely to appeal to stereotypically manly men, but they point to a clear contemporary trend. What it signifies is open to interpretation – among other things, it might indicate male insecurity or a cultural shift in gender norms.





Handbag dogs


First favoured by Hollywood celebrities who often carry them to "A-list" functions in their handbags, these dogs are now a common sight in the UK as the not-so-rich-and-famous follow suit.

more on: silversurfertoday




05/11/10

Buff

Slang for having well-developed musculature, as well as being in a state of undress; a soft, naturally tan leather beloved this season by neo-minimalist designers, i.e.,

Since I started wearing these buff Céline sandals, I feel like I’m getting an extra workout — their wooden platform soles are giving me calves of steel!”


Ergo, you’ve got to be buff to be in the buff.


published on: Tmag - NYTimes


Uber

Superlatives coming on strongest are off the hook, which has topped the old ''wow''; uber, as in ''His whip is uber-fast'' (from the German for ''over, super''); and wooka, as in ''That movie is wooka-sweet.''

read more on: NYTimes


Camo

Camo is fashion slang, short for ''camouflage,''used to describe outdoorsy wear that blends in with jungle greenery.
On the gripping post-election cover of The New Republic, the editorial cartoonist Mark Alan Stamaty drew a crowd of recriminating Democrats blaming John Kerry for every possible campaign error, including ''He shouldn't have worn camo.''


read more on: NYTimes

03/11/10

Doppelganger

When two people arrive at the same event wearing almost identical dresses

Doppelganger comes from a German word that translates as "double goer." It originally meant "a ghostly counterpart of a living person."

Source: Merriam Webster


Diastema

Diastema is the technical term for a gap between the front teeth.



It's said that it is now so much of the moment, as part of a move away from perfection towards a more natural look, that some young models are having dental work to create one.

Source:WorldWideWords