Fashion Terminology
Fashion is the current standard by which a person’s ensemble and appearance are judged. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television all talk about fashion. To understand the language in which they describe the prevailing fashion, it is important to know the terms used in the fashion industry.
Fashion
Fashion is all about style. It is a style that is accepted by a large group of people at any one time. Fashion is always new even when an old fashion is revived, because styles are reintroduced with newness for fresh appeal. Styles, such as long skirts, empire dresses, cigarette pants, fitted kurtas were in fashion during the 1970s and have attracted the fancy of the wearer to be back in fashion.
Many scholars have discussed fashion and have put forward their thoughts on the subject. Oscar Wilde said, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” According to Shakespeare, “Fashion wears out more apparel than the man.” The most widely recognized fashion authority, late Dr. Paul H. Nystrom, defined it as, “nothing more or less than the prevailing style at a given time.”
A fashion is always based on style. However, a style does not become a fashion until it gains acceptanceand remains a fashion only as long as it is accepted. There are styles that repeatedly come and go out of fashion, such as circular skirts, double-breasted jackets.
As fashion communicates the status of a person in the society and expresses his individuality, it needs to be displayed and exposed to a number of people to be adopted by them. In each stratum of our society, there are fashion leaders, who quickly adopt new fashions, and fashion followers, who wait for a large number of people to adopt a certain fashion before including it in their wardrobes.
Fashion always displays something new to attract people’s interest and desire for change, and gain acceptance. Fashion satisfies the need for self-beautification and adornment. Fashion is a reflection of the times in which it is popular. It showcases the lifestyle and thought process of the people adorning the fashion. The value system, class system and activities that prevailed during that time can also known form the styles in fashion
High Fashion and Mass Fashion
High Fashion or Haute Couture refers to those new styles that are special in their overall appeal. They are manufactured in limited numbers and introduced to exclusive clientele of fashion leaders. They are very expensive as they have newness in the design, superfine quality fabric, perfect workmanship, and are made to order as per the client size. High fashion needs wide acceptance from a large mamber of people for it to become Mass fashion. The garments belonging to mass fashion are manufactured and sold in large quantities at comparatively low prices and have a wide appeal because of their simple and more wearable designs.
Style
In this world, everything has got a style as Style refers to the distinctive characteristics of a thing Convertibles, vans, multi-unlity vehicles are all automobiles with different styles. Similarly, there is Mughal, Turopean, and French any le of architecture, to name a few.
In terms of apparel designing, style is the characteristic or distinctive appearance of a garment. It is a combination of features that makes it different from other garments. For example, dresses are one style of apparel, trousers are another, and skirts are another. At times, in a style there exist a number of styles each very different and individualistic in its looks. For instance, straight skirt, A-line skirt, pleated skirt, circular skirt are all examples of styles within a style.
As style refers to distinctive characteristics, it always remains a style, whether it is currently accepted as a fashion statement or not. Some styles are named after the period of history in which they originated, such as Roman, Greek When such styles return to fashion, their basic elements remain the same. They may be modified slightly to conform to the current fashion trends.
Design
A Design is a composition of silhouette, color, texture, details, which create specific versions or variations of a style. For example, a coat is a style; increasing or decreasing its length, adding reducing its fullness, creating different necklines, or varying its sleeves, and any other changes will give it an unlimited variety of designs.
Once a style gains acceptance, many different designs of the same style are developed by altering its composing elements and introduced in the market by apparel manufacturers. On the Indian fashion scene, suits have existed in various designs, While one popular design is a calf-length shirt worn with a churidar or salwar, the other one is the short thigh-length shirt worn with parallels, patiala, churidar, or salwar. Each design can have unlimited variations in terms of necklines, sleeve length, slit length, and embellishments.
Trend
A fashion trend refers to the general course of movement, direction, or flow that fashions in clothing Follow Though designers are the main Torce behind the introduction of a design, ins ultimate success depends on the consumer, who decides on the acceptance of a particular design
The changes in design from one season to the next may be subtle, but they follow a trend. As a fashion designer always designs for the forthcoming season, it is vital for him or her to recognize the trends and designs accordingly. The new styles gaining acceptance in the industry are referred to as fashion forward and the experimental and shocking fashions are known as avant garde.
Classics
Classics refer to the styles that endure. A Classic is characterized by simplicity of design and its suitability to the clothing needs of a large group of population.
They satisfy the basic need of clothing and continue to be accepted by the population in varying degrees over an extended period of time. Examples of classics are polo neck sweaters, cardigans, blazers, men’s suit, button-down collar shirt,
At times, classics may change in their look, but such changes are subtle as these changes are introduced mainly in the material, texture, design details, cut, and shape of the garment
Fads
A Fad is a short-lived fashion. Fads refer to styles that are extreme and exaggerated in their design. Therefore, they suddenly gain high level of popularity amongst a small part of population and then quickly disappear from the fashion scene, as people soon get tired of them.
Hair dyed in patches, hot pants, pedal pushers. bell-bottoms, patiala salwar are all examples of fads.