Luxury Lexicon 30 terms
Garments terms
Parts of a garment and the words used to describe cutting, fitting and construction.
A
- Accessories
- Items worn or carried with clothing, such as bags, belts, scarves and jewellery.
B
C
- Chemise
- A chemise is a loose undergarment or a light piece of lingerie that hangs from the shoulders.
- Circular fashion
- An approach that aims to keep garments and materials in use through durable design, repair, reuse and recycling.
- Collar
- A band or shaped piece of fabric attached around a garment’s neckline.
- Couture
- French for sewing or dressmaking; in fashion, often used for specially made, carefully constructed clothing.
D
E
- Embroidery
- Decoration stitched into cloth, leather or another ground with thread or fine wire, by hand or by machine.
F
- Fit
- The way a garment sits on the body, including its shape, ease and freedom of movement.
G
- Gusset
- An inserted piece of material that adds room, shape or flexibility to a garment or shoe.
H
- Haute couture
- A controlled French designation for fashion houses meeting specific requirements for made-to-order clothing and its presentation.
- Hem
- The finished edge of a garment or fabric, often made by folding and securing the edge.
L
- Lingerie
- Underwear and nightwear, often made with fabrics such as lace, silk or fine cotton.
M
- Made-to-measure
- Making a garment by adjusting an existing pattern to a customer’s measurements.
N
P
- Pattern
- A template used to cut the separate pieces of a garment.
R
- Ready-to-wear
- Ready-to-wear is clothing made in standard sizes and offered for sale as finished garments.
S
- Sampling
- Sampling can mean making trial versions of a garment before production or offering customers small quantities of a beauty product to try.
- Seamstress
- A person whose job is sewing garments: assembling them, altering them to fit and repairing them, by hand or by machine.
- Silhouette
- The overall outline or shape of a garment or outfit.
- Sleeve
- The part of a garment that covers all or part of the arm.
- Sustainable fashion
- An approach to reducing environmental and social harm across the making, use and disposal of clothing.
T
- Tailleur
- French for a tailored suit, commonly a jacket worn with a matching skirt or trousers.
- Tailor
- A craftsperson who cuts, makes, alters and fits garments, chiefly structured ones such as jackets, coats and trousers.
- Tailoring
- Making, shaping and fitting garments, including suits and coats, as well as altering finished clothing.
- Tech pack
- A set of specifications and instructions used to communicate how a garment or product should be made.
U
- Upcycling
- Using existing or discarded products and materials to make something with added value.