Keeping Up Appearances: On Trend: Fashionable Words

Could you use a vocabulary makeover? Try on these seriously stylish words from the fashion world.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bespoke
    custom-made
    "A wave of embarrassing leaks showed that Mr. LaPierre billed a contractor hundreds of thousands of dollars for bespoke suits and foreign travel, as well as some of his wife’s makeup costs."
    – New York Times (Aug 22, 2019)
    In olden times, if you ordered something — like a bolt of cloth to make a suit — it was "spoken for", or bespoke. "Off-the-rack" means just that: nothing custom, mass-produced. "Made-to-measure" means that an existing pattern is cut to fit your size. Bespoke suits are made from scratch, entirely for you, with multiple fittings throughout the process and every feature customizable.
  2. boutonniere
    a flower that is worn in a buttonhole
    "Each honored guest was given the royal treatment: tuxedos and shoe shining stations for the kings, and gorgeous dresses, hair and makeup stations for the queens, along with corsages and boutonnieres."
    – Fox News (Feb 9, 2019)
    Bouton is French for button, so a boutonniere naturally occupies the buttonhole on your jacket's lapel.
  3. corduroy
    thick cotton fabric with vertical ribs
    "Padman was sitting cross-legged and barefoot on one end of a beige couch, wearing a cream corduroy jumpsuit."
    – Los Angeles Times (May 16, 2019)
    This word probably originated from combining cord and duroy, a coarse fabric. It is not French; "corde du roi" would mean "the King's cord" but there was never such a term. The cords or ridges in the fabric are known as wales.
  4. couture
    high fashion designing and dressmaking
    "The recent Valentino haute couture show, he added, was so spectacular that it received a 10-minute standing ovation from an audience where some were moved to tears of joy"
    – The Guardian (Aug 31, 2019)
    French has given us many fashion-related words, and this might be the best known of them all. You'll often see it as haute couture, meaning "high fashion", referring to the fanciest and most expensive clothes that famous houses produce for their insanely wealthy clients.
  5. cummerbund
    a broad pleated sash worn at the waist with a tuxedo
    "They are traditionally worn with black bow ties and black vests or cummerbunds."
    – Washington Post (June 28, 2019)
    This is a Hindi word meaning "waistband". Because of the intense heat, around the year 1850 British officers stationed in the Subcontinent adopted local sashes in place of waistcoats (vests) for their formal dinner attire. Considered somewhat old-fashioned today, when worn properly they can still be an elegant way to hide the fact that your shirt keeps bunching up at the waist. If you're a messy eater, you may find that yours becomes a crummerbund during dinner.
  6. dapper
    marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
    "Mr. Conte, fond of pocket kerchiefs and purple ties, is studiously dapper even when discussing legislation with a man in his underwear on a Naples balcony."
    – New York Times (Aug 29, 2019)
    Probably from the Dutch word meaning "strong", this word entered English around 1440 to mean "sharply dressed". Dapper Dan, a designer in Harlem, was instrumental in bringing high fashion to the world of hip-hop. Natty is a good synonym.
  7. embroidery
    decorative needlework
    "They did not even learn petit-point embroidery or crochet work, just plain sewing and the making of paper flowers and other such chores."
    – The Guardian (Sep 4, 2019)
  8. epaulet
    an ornamental cloth pad worn on the shoulder
    "The look: Trim, buttoned and belted, often with random epaulets on the shoulders."
    – Seattle Times (Nov 20, 2018)
    Many fashionable details originate in military uniforms. Ornate epaulets used to be signifiers of rank on officers' uniforms; simple ones secured straps and ammo belts to enlisted men's bodies in combat. Now you see them on everything from dresses to leather jackets. Epaule is "shoulder" in French, so epaulet (or epaulette) means "little shoulder".
  9. sartorial
    of or relating to tailoring or clothing
    "They were both purists who worked without compromise at the extremes of the sartorial spectrum—minimalist austerity and baroque flamboyance."
    – The New Yorker (Sep 4, 2019)
    In latin, a sartor is a tailor.
  10. stiletto
    a small dagger with a tapered blade
    "Her go-to outfit, which hits mid-calf, is a $90 gray shift that she wears belted and hiked above the knees, often with stilettos."
    – Washington Post (Aug 2, 2019)
    A stiletto is a long, skinny dagger. These days, though, it more often refers to tall, thin heels on shoes, to the point where many people now simply say "stiletto" instead of "stiletto heel".
  11. tulle
    a fine fabric net used for veils, tutus, or gowns
    "Material made of lace is also popular for many Nigerian brides across tribes, as are other textiles like silk and tulle, embellished with hand-stitched beads, stones and pearls tailored painstakingly to a bride’s taste."
    – New York Times (Aug 20, 2019)
    Tulle is the French town where this type of fine netted fabric originated. Locating the perfect material for a dress is simply a matter of finding the right tulle for the job.
Created on Mon Sep 02 17:19:11 EDT 2019 (updated Wed Oct 23 18:22:35 EDT 2019)

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