Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
Clothing terminology comprises the names of individual garments and classes of garments, as well as the specialized vocabularies of the trades that have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold clothing over hundreds of years. The vocabulary ranges from the arcane — watchet, a pale blue color name from the sixteenth century — to the everyday t-shirt, and it changes over time in response to fashion, which in turn reflects social, artistic and political trends. This page maps the categories of clothing terms, from garment classes, parts and details to fabrics, sewing and patternmaking terms and the language of retail, and explains the surprising persistence of the basic garment names.
Clothing terminology ranges from the arcane (watchet, a pale blue color name from the sixteenth century) to the everyday (t-shirt), and changes over time in response to fashion which in turn reflects social, artistic, and political trends.
At its broadest, clothing terminology may be said to include names for:
Classes of basic garments: shirt, coat, dress, suit, underwear
Contemporary and historical styles of garments: frock coat, t-shirt, doublet
Parts of garments: sleeve, collar, lapel
Styles of these: juliette sleeve, Peter Pan collar
Clothing details: pocket, french cuff, zipper
Traditional garments: cheongsam, kilt, dirndl
Fashions and "anti-fashions": preppy, New Look, hip-hop, rational dress
Colors and dyes: madder red, indigo, isabella
Sewing terms: cut, hem, armscye, lining
Patternmaking terms: sloper
Methods of manufacture: haute couture, bespoke tailoring, ready-to-wear
Retailers' terms:
Size ranges: missy, plus size, big-and-tall
Retail seasons: back-to-school, holiday, resort
Departments: special occasion, sportswear, bridge fashion
Degrees of formality: formal wear, bridal, business casual
Gown (from medieval Latin gunna) was a basic clothing term for hundreds of years, referring to a garment that hangs from the shoulders. In medieval and renaissance England gown referred to a loose outer garment worn by both men and women, sometimes short, more often ankle length, with sleeves. By the eighteenth century gown had become a standard category term for a woman's dress, a meaning it retained until the mid-twentieth century. Only in the last few decades has gown lost this general meaning in favor of dress. Today the term gown is retained only in specialized cases: academic dress or cap and gown, evening gown, nightgown, hospital gown, and so on.
Shirt and skirt are originally the same word, the former being the southern and the latter the northern pronunication in early Middle English. Like gown, shirt is becoming a specialized term in Britain, though it retains its general meaning in the U.S. (see Shirt).
Coat remains a term for an over-garment, its essential meaning for the last thousand years (see Coat).
|
|
Names for new styles or fashions in clothing are frequently the deliberate inventions of fashion designers or clothing manufacturers; these include Chanel's Little Black Dress (a term which has survived) and Lanvin's robe de style (which has not). Other terms are of more obscure origin.
Clothing styles are frequently named
after people
often with a military connection:
A notable trend at the turn of the twenty-first century is "cute" short forms: camisole becomes cami, hooded sweaters or sweatshirts become hoodies. Learn about college sweatshirts.
The much-older term shimmy for "slip" is most likely a false singular from chemise.
At its broadest, clothing terminology includes names for classes of basic garments, contemporary and historical styles, parts of garments and styles of those parts, details such as pockets and cuffs, traditional garments, fabrics, colors and dyes, and the sewing, patternmaking, manufacturing and retail vocabularies of the clothing trades.
Despite constant new terms from designers, manufacturers and marketers, the names for several basic garment classes in English are very stable: gown, shirt, skirt, frock and coat are all attested back to the early medieval period, because the basic garments themselves have remained in continuous use.
Yes — shirt and skirt are originally the same word, the former being the southern and the latter the northern pronunciation in early Middle English. They diverged into two garments as the word's two pronunciations settled on different parts of the outfit.