Phresh

Flyer than the rest, fresh with emphasis, cool, the ultimate swag.

Source: Urban Dictionary

The slipper index

As sales of pyjamas soar, retailers are referring to “the slipper index.”

It’s the time of year when thoughts usually turn to buying a cocktail dress and heels as the party season hits full swing. But this year it seems our priorities are a little different. Rather than splurging on clothes for going out, many of us are spending money on luxurious pieces for staying in. Certainly that’s the message from shop floors and online retailers. …

Wheeler attributed the term “slipper index” to popular UK department store John Lewis, and explained:

The theory is that sales of slippers and pyjamas increase in a downturn. There’s also the cold snap – not only are we going out less, we’re also investing in cosy clothes in a bid to stay toasty. As we’re spending more time on our sofas, we’re willing to spend more on staying-in wear – and splashing out on pieces in luxe fabrics, such as cashmere and silk.

published on: Schott's Vocab

Read also:

Heel heights grow during Recession

Handbag Fashion

Nailphiles

Lipstick Effect

Going brow-less

Hemline Index

Made to measure, limited edition, one-off

Made-to-measure: is when an existing garment or pattern is adjusted for you.

A one-off: describes garments of which only one exists.

A limited edition: describes a garment of which there are more than one but not so many the girl next door will also have one.

UGG

The word may have derived from fug boots that were worn by aviators in rural Australia during World War I. The term is believed to be a shortened version of “flying ugg boots.”

The unisex sheepskin and fleece footware called UGG boots, or simply uggs, gained popularity in the 1960s when competitive surfers began wearing them. They were the perfect remedy for cold, numb, wet feet.

Now, everyone seems to be sporting the boots, from Hollywood celebrities and their tween followers to suburban moms. Originally of simple design, Uggs now sport glamorous embellishments such as brass grommets, fringe, and animal skin patterns.

So, what does the word mean?

The history of the term ― and the trademark — are highly disputed. Australia and New Zealand both claim to be the original home of Uggs and in these countries the term “ugg” can be used to market any fleece and sheepskin boot. That is, it is considered a generic term. However, in more than 100 other countries, UGG is a registered trademark.

Source: HotDictionary

Speckbarbie

A deeply pejorative term that may be translated as "bacon Barbie",a young woman dressed to the nines in clothing that's much tootight.

source: Word Wide Words

more on:

Duden

Langensheid

On symbolic power of of fashion lingo

Fashion lingo has a property of "written" garment

In his book The Fashion System (1983), Barthes focuses on descriptive texts of women's magazines. He argues that the language here has a property of "written garment"and assumes that the forms of fashion are trasformed in verbal forms. So, the headlines in fashion magazines play a role of written garments and describe the photographs in linguistic forms.

More on: FashionEnglish

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

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

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.

source: WorldWideWords

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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

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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

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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

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