Know 30 Essential Fashion Terms To Grow Your Fashion Career

?It's necessary to know the fashion language, whether you wish to be a designer or are only someone who loves fashion. The more you know, the better it is for your understanding from most common terms read in fashion magazines and books to some particular wording used by designers, journalists or other professionals.

Understanding fashion terminology and how it is used in the industry can help you gain an understanding of the technical foundations of this sector, as well as improve your vocabulary. Knowing this will allow you to better understand the context in which it is used.

Haute Couture: Haute Couture is a division of the fashion industry organized by the trade association named the Federation de la Haute Couture. In Haute Couture, High fashion Houses produce two collections a year and then make customized versions of the designs in the collection for individual clients according to their specific measurements. Haute Couture collections are the most prestigious and luxurious that exist in the fashion industry. The materials are precious, everything is studied in detail. And it takes about 200-500 hours or even more to create one of these custom-made garments.

Atelier: The term atelier is used to refer to the fashion industry's working space where design, pattern making and fittings frequently take place. It's usually referred to as the work aspect of Couture Houses.

Ready-to-wear: If you follow fashion weeks, you might have noticed that brands use the term Ready-to-wear for the new collections: Fall/Winter Ready-to-wear and Spring/Summer Ready-to-wear. But have you ever asked yourself what technically the term Ready-to-wear means? If we take it word by word Ready-to-wear means that the product is something we can purchase and wear immediately. In fact, most of the clothes we buy are ready-to-wear.?

Cruise Collection: The cruise collection, also referred to as the resort collection, is a mid-spring and autumn collections that are presented by various brands during two major seasons of Spring Summer and Fall Winter. The two months we're seeing cruise shows on the runway are May and June. They had originally begun with the aim of serving rich cruise passengers who were going on vacations and needed new mid-season clothes for traveling to other climates around the world.?The resort collection usually features relaxed silhouettes, lightweight fabrics, and twinning swimsuits.

Diffusion line: A diffusion line is a group of products that, are visually similar way related to the principal product of a brand but usually sold at lower prices and under different labeling so as to reach consumers with less purchasing power.?For example, "VERSACE" is the main product line and VERSUS is the diffusion line of the company.?

Trend: The concept of the trend was born in the 14th century when upper levels of society showed their status and wealth by changing their look on a regular basis.

'Trend' is one of the most well-known words in fashion. It is used by insiders of the industry, but anyone can use it to talk about fashion. A trend is the product, style, color, shape, fabrics, and patterns that are most likely to be adopted in a specific period of time. And popularity means that the majority of people adopt, imitate, or replicate a particular style.

The fashion trend life cycle goes through this, > When the trend is spotted for the first time, >When it becomes popular, > When it’s no longer trending. ?

Trend forecasting: The concept of trend forecasting is to predict what trends and developments will have an effect on the fashion industry. It is done by trend forecasters who are usually based at trend forecasting agencies, like WGSN, FASHION SNOOPS, etc. Nature, culture, economy, or celebrity trends can be the subjects of their research. What we're talking about is not only fashion trends that are influenced by what happens around the globe, but also culture and societal behavior.?

Fad: In simple terms, the FAD is a trend and it's shorter. That means that the product, color, style, silhouette, textile, or pattern lasted less than a couple of weeks, months, and an entire season. To give a perfect example is the Nylon bag of Prada. Initially launched in 1984, it became obsolete and recently popular again.

Conglomerate: A conglomerate is a business model consisting of many separate components that existed under the auspices of this parent undertaking. We all know the name of INDITEX, which owns many different labels Like ZARA, PULL & BEAR, BERSHKA, etc which operate independently, is an example of a conglomerate in the fashion sector. However, all of this is subject to corporate supervision by the parent company

License agreement: A business agreement is a contractual arrangement between one company and another on the basis of which it may use its brand, logo or other symbol to develop, produce and market its products. Licensing agreements are frequently used to develop cosmetic and accessories lines in fashion. For example, Coty produces beauty products and fragrances from brands such as Burberry, Tiffany & Co., and Gucci. Another example is?Luxottica, which makes glasses for the likes of Chanel, Prada, and Versace. They're operating under a license agreement.

Off-the-rack: “Off-the-rack” is a term used to refer to ready-to-wear clothing that is sold in a finished form. In other words, it is ready to be worn directly from the store, or off the hanger and store rack. Ready-to-wear collections are indeed off-the-rack.

Bespoke: Synonym to “custom-made”, “bespoke” is an adjective describing a type of garment made to the specific measurements of an individual client. That doesn't mean one of a kind. It is usually because of a general pattern, which can be tailored to the person's measurements, that custom garments are produced. It’s the opposite of “off-the-rack”.

Wholesale: The term "wholesale" is the industry standard for defining a business-to-trade contract in which a shop and a brand are involved." To make it clear when you see brands that are sold in a variety of retail outlets such as Department stores or online multi brand retailers like Farfetch and NetaPorter, they're wholesale. So, there's a middleman buying bulk products from the brand collection and selling them in their stores to customers. Some brands have their own store plus use a wholesale model. For example, Saint Laurent sells their collection in their own Saint Laurent stores and on their official website.

Direct-to-consumer: “Direct-to-consumer” refers to a business model in which a brand will sell directly to consumers. Rather than selling wholesale in Multibrand stores, they would sell it themselves through their direct and internet store.

Made-to-order: “Made-to-order” refers to a business model in which a brand does not manufacture products ahead of time and in bulk. Rather, they're waiting for the order to be filled. Made to Order products are produced according to the individual customer's specifications, measurements, preferences, and requirements. For example, custom polo shirts can be ordered at Ralph Lauren.

Some brands use made-to-order models for sustainability purposes also.

Sample: A sample shall represent a garment that has been produced to test its design, fittings, measurement, and other features before they are manufactured in large quantities. Also called going into production. Cheaper material or the final fabric may be used to make a sample.?

Standardized sizing: Standardized sizing is a system of creating mass-produced garments in regular measurement intervals, “standard” sizes in order to fit a range of bodies. Typically, the system begins from a “medium” and then scales the measurements up or down.

Look: The look is an individual grouping in the collection. It's usually referring to a complete set, including all the accessories.

Silhouette: Silhouette is a contour that a garment creates when worn. It is represented as a solid shape mostly in black color, while the interior of the silhouette is mostly white, allowing you to see the structure of the overall garment.

A-line: A-line silhouettes typically begin at the waist in the shape of the letter "A", a triangle like shape. And from the hip down to the hem, it's widening.?

Seam: “seam” is the term that refers to the line of stitches where two pieces of fabric are sewn together.??

Trimmings: Trimmings are decorative pieces of fabric and ribbons added to the surface of a finished garment. It is most often used in discussing historical fashion.??

Knit: Knit, or knitwear, is a fabric structure that is formed by the combination of yarns to form a series of flexible knots. You often find a category called "knitwear" when you're shopping online. The applies to knit clothing, such as sweaters, cardigans, nightgowns, accessories, and so on.?

Patchwork: Patchwork is a method of combining, among other things, some small pieces of fabric, texture, color or pattern to make bigger geometric designs.

Pattern: “Pattern” refers to the flat, geometric shapes that will be pieced together and sewn to make a finished garment. The pattern is designed by specially trained individuals – pattern makers – based on a sketch of a final look. The pattern pieces are then laid out on the fabric to cut around.

Knock-off: “knock-off” is a copy of a fashion design that is manufactured in cheaper materials. And sold at a lower price than the original.

Flat sketch: “A Flat Sketch” is a 2D Technical Drawing that shows how the final garment should look. They have been used for turning that idea into a simple design, so as to give the garment all the necessary engineering details in order to ensure proper production. Front and rear view, side view, stitching lines, etc. Technical designers are often responsible for the design of flat drawings. It should be made available to those who participate in the production process.

CAD: Stands for Computer-Aided Design. It's a software that allows designers to digitally create all the different components of their designs, which used to be made manually in the design process.

?Glossy magazine: It is a term used in reference to fashion magazines like Vogue and comes from the smooth, glossy pages they are often printed on.

?Market Week: This term refers to the time when a brand will schedule appointments with buyers to see the collection before they place orders

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