Luxury Lexicon 27 terms

Garments terms

Garment components and the work of designing, fitting, sewing and altering clothing.

All groups

A

Accessories
Items worn or carried with clothing, such as bags, belts, scarves and jewellery.

B

Bespoke
Made for an individual customer; in tailoring, cut from a pattern created specifically for that person.
Bodice
The upper portion of a dress or similar garment, generally covering the torso above the waist.

C

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.
Cravat
A length of fabric worn around the neck and tied or arranged as neckwear.

D

Dart
A stitched fold that takes in fabric to shape a garment around the body.
Décolleté
Describing a low-cut neckline that exposes the upper chest and sometimes the shoulders.

F

Fast fashion
A model of clothing production and retail built around rapidly changing styles and relatively low prices.
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.

M

Made-to-measure
Making a garment by adjusting an existing pattern to a customer’s measurements.

N

Neckline
The shape and edge of a garment’s opening around the neck.

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
Making or assessing trial versions of a product before production; in beauty, sampling can instead mean providing trial quantities to customers.
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.

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