Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
This section contains concepts and terms that are of interest to members of the apparel industry, fashion industry or textile industry. The goal of this area is to provide information formatted around key topics of interest to the industry in which we work, as well as to the ultimate consumer of fashion products. On this page, you will find areas of interest that begin with the letter “N”. The N terms run from trade and labeling (NAFTA care symbols) through textile materials (narrow fabrics and the natural fibers list) and sourcing strategy (nearshoring), to digital fashion and style (fashion NFTs and normcore) and the small supplies that finish a garment (notions), with necklines linked as a closely related garment term.
This section contains concepts and terms that we feel are of interest to members of the apparel industry, fashion industry or textile industry.
The goal of this area is to provide you with information that is formatted around key topics of interest to the industry in which we work as well as ultimate consumer of fashion products.
On this page, you will find areas of interest that begin with the letter "N".
The seven N entries in this directory fall into a few clear families. Materials come first: narrow fabrics are the tapes, braids, ribbons, bindings and elastics twelve inches wide or less that hold garments in place and finish their edges, and the natural fibers list catalogs the plant, animal and mineral fibers — cotton, flax, jute, wool, mohair, silk and many more — that clothing has been made from for centuries. Notions belong with them in the workroom: the buttons, zippers, snaps, hooks and eyes, thread and trims without which no garment can be closed, fitted or finished.
A second family covers trade and production decisions. NAFTA care symbols explain how standardized care label symbols let one label serve the United States, Canada and Mexico instead of carrying instructions in three languages, and nearshoring explains the sourcing strategy of moving production closer to the market it serves for faster turnaround, closer quality control and a smaller transport footprint. Both pages carry practical cautions: care labeling has legal consequences and its rules change, and nearshoring trades some production-cost savings for speed and resilience.
The third family is digital and cultural. Fashion NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital tokens used as certificates of ownership for digital fashion assets, sometimes paired with physical couture, as in the Dolce & Gabbana Collezione Genesi auction of 2021. Normcore sits at the opposite pole of fashion attention: a deliberate embrace of unpretentious, average-looking clothing — plain tees, hoodies, jeans and chinos — by people who choose not to stand out through what they wear.
Start with the term list directly under the introduction — those links are the whole N section, each exactly one click away, plus the necklines page, which the N directory has always pointed to because necklines are looked up alongside these terms. Readers looking for a topic rather than a letter can use Fashion Terms by Category, which groups terms around subjects, and the full Fashion Terms Directory for the complete A to Z listing across both directory pages. Terms that start with a number have their own directory page as well, linked from the letter bar.
The N section covers NAFTA care symbols, narrow fabrics, the natural fibers list, nearshoring, fashion NFTs (non-fungible tokens), normcore and notions, and it also links to necklines — each reachable from the term list on this page.
Every N term has its own page with a definition and explanation written for the apparel, fashion and textile industries. The list on this page links to each of them, and the Fashion Terms Directory links onward to the other letter directories.
The terms are written for members of the apparel, fashion and textile industries and for consumers of fashion products who want a plain explanation of an industry concept.