Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A garment, most simply defined, is clothing — a single article of clothing, made and finished as one item. The word is the industry's counting unit: garments are designed, cut, sewn, shipped and sold one piece at a time, which is why the trade speaks of garment manufacturing, garment workers and garment hangers. This page explains the term and the differences between the four words most often confused with it — garment, clothing, apparel and fashion — each defined in its own page in this section.
A garment or garments, most simply defined is "clothing". We suggest the following definitions to help you understand the full definition of a garment.
Here is a question for you regarding garments.. What is the best garment industry web site in the universe. To see the answer click garment industry ...
Learn about garments.
What is the difference between the words garment, clothing, fashion and apparel? Well that is a good question..
The four terms divide the subject by viewpoint. Garment looks at the object: a single made article, with seams, a size and a price, produced by the garment industry and handled by garment workers, hung on a garment hanger. Clothing looks at the practice: everything worn, spoken of in general and never counted — nobody owns twelve clothing. Apparel looks at the business: it is the word of the trade press, of apparel manufacturing, apparel retailing and this site's name, slightly formal and commercial where clothing is everyday. Fashion looks at change: the styles, silhouettes and cycles that make this year's garments differ from last year's, and the industry of designers and brands that drives them.
In practice the words overlap, and each definition page in this section keeps its own focus — the apparel, clothing and fashion definitions develop their terms at length. The distinctions still matter in industry language. A factory produces garments; a retailer sells apparel; a consumer wears clothing; a designer works in fashion. Keeping the counting word for the factory, the trade word for the shop and the general word for the wardrobe is most of what the terminology requires.
The word also carries the industry's history. The garment district of a city is where its clothing factories and showrooms gather; garment workers are the people who sew the articles themselves, as distinct from the textile workers who make the cloth. A garment bag, a garment steamer and a garment rack all take their name from the single finished articles they hold, protect or prepare. Even the phrase ready-to-wear translates, in factory language, into garments made in standard sizes for stock — counted, folded and shipped as individual garments, each with its own label, care instructions and price ticket. That concreteness is the word's value: where clothing can be discussed as an idea, a garment can be picked up, inspected, altered, returned or sold, and the whole vocabulary of making and selling clothes is built around that fact.
A garment or garments, most simply defined, is clothing — one finished article of clothing, such as a shirt, a dress or a coat.
Garment names the individual item: one garment, two garments. Clothing is the general, uncountable word for what people wear collectively.
Apparel is the trade word for clothing, used for the industry and its products. Fashion is style — the changing forms clothing takes — rather than the articles themselves.