The Debeham fashion dictionary

High-street department store Debenhams is launching the online reference guide to help staff and customers through the retail maze of treggings, shackets, whorts and mandles.

Blurt: [Blouse/Skirt] all in one blouse and skirt combo.

Cardigown: [Cardigan/Dressing Gown]Cardigan, usually long and belted like a cardigan.

Coatigan: [Coat /Cardigan] Cardigan with a coat appearance.

Jardigan: [Jacket/Cardigan] a thick jacket like cardigan that requires no coat on top.

Jeggings: [Jean/Leggings] Leggings with jean like qualities.

Jombats: [Jegging/Combats] tight combats of jegging quality.

Mace Mackets: [Male Lace] [Mac/Jacket] a cross between a mac and a jacket.

Mandles: [Man – Sandals] sandals for men.

Mankinis: [Male/Bikini skimpy swimwear for men championed by Borat.

Meggings: [Male Leggings] very tight jersey trousers for men.

Mubes: [Maxi Tube Dress] Shacket [Shirt/Jacket] Jacket of shirt like appearance.

Shacket: (Shirt/Jacket) Jacket with shirt-like appearance.

Shoots: (Shoe/Boots) Not quite a shoe nor a boot but something in between.

Skorts: (Skirt/Short) Shorts with the look of a skirt i.e. culottes

Skousers: [Skirt/Trousers] trousers with an attached skirt.

Tankini: [Tank/Bikini] cross between a bikini and a tank top for a more modest swim option.

Tregging: [Trouser/Legging] Leggings of trouser like appearance.

Watchlet: [Watch/Bracelet] a bracelet which includes a time telling decorative element.

Whorts: [Winter shorts] thick, often wool based shorts, normally worn with tights in winter.

Tweet

OTK, VPL

Fashion-world initialisms.

Discussing fashion’s penchant for abbreviation, Hadley Freeman commented in The Guardian on the latest additions to the style lexicon:

OTK:over the knee, generally applied to boots but can also be used for hemlines
VPL: is well known but there is now also VBL (visible bra line) and VBS (visible bra strap) and then the particularly marvellous TFFF (too fat for fashion.)

published on: Schott's Vocab

Tweet

House DNA

The fundamental design characteristics of a (fashion) brand.

Reporting on Paris Fashion Week for Agence France-Presse, Sarah Shard noted:

At the just-ended Paris ready-to-wear collections, the buzz word was “house DNA,” or what makes a label distinctive.

The chief buyer for the Paris department store Printemps, Aymeric de Beco, said he had been struck by the “insistence at all the shows on the house’s genetic code.”

“I think that’s also what the consumers are looking for, to go back to the basics of a brand.”

published on: Schott's Vocab

Tweet

Hair Dictionary: 6 New Terms to Know Beauty: glamour.com

Hair Dictionary: 6 New Terms to Know Beauty: glamour.com
Tweet

Dictionary Additions

Published on: Tmag

• “Shootie” = Booty + Shoe, courtesy of Rachel Zoe
• “Breakover” = Makeover after you break up with someone, courtesy of Glamour

Fashionese dictionary page from T Mag

"Fierce" heading the list of banned fashion words

A compliment, meaning you look aggressively attractive, sexy and cool

Many blogger opine about the difficulties of writing about fashion: “You have no idea how hard it is to write about fashion! It’s hell! Not only are the terms just as seasonal as the clothes we don’t want anymore at the end of the summer, but new trends, materials, and cuts appear every three days and demand their rights: to be named!"

To this end, there is a list of banned fashion words from a fashion mag, Velour.

The fashion no-no list includes: “trendy,” “fashionista,” “must have,” “vintage/retro,” “celeb,” “style icon”, “frock star” and “uber”.

Fashion editors and stylists have conducted a very quick and informal poll for the fashion words they’d most like to put on moratorium.

Everyone would like to see “fierce” die a swift death.

Published on: Fashionista

Fashion's new favourite buzzword: gypset

Back in March of last year, Assouline released a book about bohemian-meets-jetset style that resulted in fashion’s new favorite buzz word: gypset.

For Julia Chaplin’s book’s purpose, the term was meant to connote “an international community of artists, designers, surfers, and bon vivants who live and work around the globe.”

The term epitomizes an aspirational lifestyle (one of traipsing around exotic locales with a never-ending expense account à la the late Talitha Getty); and, given the fashion industry’s recession-induced financial turmoil, it’s little surprise that a sense of lavish escapism is taking hold.
That said, why does fashion always have to grab on to annoying hybrid lingo? Shootie, jegging, jort, and gypset should all have been retired before they made it to print.


published on: blackbookmag

Tweet

Dictionary of Fashion Buzzwords

Cankle - a combination of ‘ankle’ and ‘calf’, used to describe thick, large or undefined ankles

Fashion biscuit - a person with very good fashion sense

(to) Zooland - to make exaggerated and clichéd poses as if on a catwalk or being photographed

Receshem theory - the economic/fashion theory according to which hemlines rise and fall with the fortunes of the stockmarket

MOD - stands for 'model off duty', Used to describe the casual yet trendy style of dressing adopted by many top models when not working

Fashion killer - used to describe something which is fashionable yet unsexy. High fashion is often a bit of a mystery to men, but when it also makes a woman look unsexy then it's a fashion killer.

Fitting room fatigue - a general malaise caused by the cramped conditions common to changing rooms and the physical exertion of trying on different garments

A Birkin back - back pain caused by carrying a large and/or heavy handbag. Named after the capacious Birkin bag by Hermès

Stuck in a style bubble - when a person is fixed to a particular style of clothing in a negative, outdated way

Dress doppelganger - when two people arrive at the same event wearing almost identical dresses

Been shoulder surfed - when the person to whom you are talking looks over your shoulder to see if there is someone more important/interesting to whom they could speak

Gagaism - fascination with the diva

VPL - 'visible panty line', when the outline of one's underpants can be seen through tight fitting clothes

Whale tail - the appearance of the waistband of a thong when wearing a pair of low-waisted jeans or trousers

Muffin top - the bulge of fat which appears at the waistline when a pair of tight, low rise jeans or trousers is worn

Fashionista - a woman with a passion for fashion, a Fashionese speaker

Recessionista - a woman who continues to dress well despite having a limited budget

Glamazon - a glamorous, independent woman

Show crow - a fashion editor or journalist, so called because of their tendency to dress in head-to-toe black when attending fashion shows

Civilian - a non-fashionista or non-Fashionese speaker

Catwalker - a catwalk model

Super - a supermodel, a well known and highly paid model

Modelski - a model of Eastern European origin

Russian doll - a young model of Eastern European origin with a very childlike appearance

Moodel - a plus size model

source:Speak Fashionese


Tweet

Top Fashion Buzzwords 2010

The Global Language Monitor has designated “Lady Gaga” as the top fashion buzzword for the forthcoming season.
The words were chosen from the global fashion media and nominated by key fashionistas from around the world. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere, now including social media. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Some of the top fashion buzzwords were:

1. Lady Gaga: “Enigmatic performance artist has had outsized impact on the world of fashion.”



2. Leggings 2.0: “Flourishing from Milano to Main Street, leggings are now differentiated



3. Jeggings: (jeans + leggings) and meggings (male leggings), and the like.”



4. No Pants: “Hot pants for the 21st Century; not much pant (see Lady GaGa



5. Chandeliers: Earrings, that is.



6. Boyfriend: (the jacket, jeans etc) “It’s getting to be like an Audrey Hepburn movie out there with boyfriend jackets, jeans and the like.”



7. Peek-a-boo: “Peek-a-boo fashion is back once again; this time as cutouts.”



8. Camos: “Camouflage is back, this time with an Urban Jungle vibe.”



9. Chiconomics: Being frugal and spending within your means. But it doesn’t mean compromising on your taste or lifestyle – it just means not spending silly money to get the look and the style.



10. Ferosh: A combination of ‘fierce’ and ‘ferociousness’ popularized by Project Runway’s Christian Siriano.



11. Eco-Fashion: The term “eco-fashion” refers to stylized clothing that uses environmentally sensitive fabrics and responsible production techniques.



12. Lemongrass: The color of Ms. Obama’s Inauguration gown.



13. Michele Obama: Michelle says ‘Yes, we can!’ to bringing back a sense of fashion to the White House; further popularizes the single-shoulder look.