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 “Q”. The Q terms are a compact, practical group: one technology term (QR codes) and a family of quality terms — quality assurance, quality control managers and quality management systems — plus a page that gathers questions for the fashion industry.
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 "Q".
The five Q entries form two clear groups. The larger group is about quality in garment production. Quality assurance is the broad discipline: the plans, factory monitoring, testing, inspections and audits that let manufacturers and suppliers keep control over the quality of clothing, fabric, footwear and accessories. Quality control managers are the people who run that work day to day — the experienced managers to whom inspectors report and who own the systems, procedures and direction of a factory's quality program. A quality management system, abbreviated QMS, is the documented structure behind both: the collection of business processes, policies, procedures and resources a company uses to hold a quality policy and meet customer requirements, often set out for factories in a buyer's compliance or vendor manual.
Reading the three quality pages together gives a complete picture. Start with quality assurance for the activities themselves — piece goods inspection, cutting room and in-process control, testing for issues such as tensile strength and pilling, and the risk of retail chargebacks when standards slip. Then read the quality control managers page for the staffing and leadership side, including how factory size and production volume determine how large a QC department needs to be, and how acceptable quality levels (AQL) frame inspection decisions. Finish with quality management systems for the formal structure that ties the activities and the people together into one maintained system.
The remaining two Q pages point outward. QR codes for fashion explains the two-dimensional Quick Response code — developed by Denso Wave in 1994 — and how fashion businesses put it to work on packaging, hangtags, price tickets and even printed garments, linking a physical item to digital information that a phone can read in seconds. Questions for the fashion industry gathers the kinds of questions the industry asks every day, from the difference between woven and knit fabric to what a marker or grading is, and points readers toward places where those questions are answered. Together, the Q pages reward a short visit: quality is the backbone of apparel production, and these five terms describe who checks it, how it is organized, and how information about it reaches the customer.
The Q section covers QR codes for fashion, quality assurance, quality control managers (QC managers), quality management systems and questions for the fashion industry — each reachable from the term list on this page.
Every Q 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.