Luxury Lexicon 55 terms
Production terms
The vocabulary of product development, workshop production and quality control.
A
- After-sales service
- Support after a purchase, such as care advice, repairs, alterations and warranty handling.
- Anglage
- Bevelling and polishing the edges of watch movement components to create smooth, reflective borders.
- Appliqué
- Decoration made by attaching pieces of fabric to a larger fabric surface.
- Atelier
- French for a workshop or studio, including a workroom where garments, accessories or other objects are made.
B
- Bench jeweller
- A bench jeweller fabricates, repairs or alters pieces of jewellery at a workbench.
- Bespoke
- Made for an individual customer; in tailoring, cut from a pattern created specifically for that person.
- Black polishing
- Polishing a metal surface so flat and smooth that it appears mirror-bright or black depending on the viewing angle.
- Blake-stitched
- A shoe construction in which a row of stitching joins the insole, upper and outsole directly.
- BOM
- Bill of materials: the list of components and quantities needed to make a product.
C
- CAD
- Computer-aided design: using software to create or modify technical drawings and models.
- Casing-up
- Installing and securing the assembled watch movement, dial and hands inside the case.
- Cemented
- A shoe construction in which adhesive bonds the outsole to the upper.
- Côtes de Genève
- A decorative finish of regular bands applied with an abrasive tool to watch movement surfaces, often plates and bridges.
- Couture
- French for sewing or dressmaking; in fashion, often used for specially made, carefully constructed clothing.
D
- Dart
- A stitched fold that takes in fabric to shape a garment around the body.
E
- Engraving
- Cutting a design or lettering into metal or another hard material, by hand with a graver or by machine or laser.
G
- Goldsmith
- A maker who forms, solders, assembles and repairs jewellery in gold and other precious metals at the bench.
- Goodyear-welted
- A shoe construction in which a welt joins the upper to the insole assembly and is separately stitched to the outsole.
- Guilloché
- A decorative pattern of repeated engraved lines, traditionally cut into metal with a hand-operated engine-turning machine.
- 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.
J
- Jacquard
- A weaving system that controls individual warp threads to create patterns, and a name for fabrics made with it.
L
- Last
- A shaped form used to build a shoe and establish its shape and fit.
- Lead time
- The time between starting or ordering an activity and receiving its result, such as placing an order and receiving stock.
- Lean
- An approach to improving work by reducing waste and focusing on value for the customer.
- Lost-wax casting
- Casting metal in a mould formed around a wax model, which is burned out to leave a cavity for the metal.
M
- Made-to-measure
- Making a garment by adjusting an existing pattern to a customer’s measurements.
- Métiers d’art
- French for skilled artistic crafts, including disciplines such as embroidery, engraving and decorative metalwork.
- Moiré
- A rippled, water-like surface effect on fabric, commonly produced by finishing a ribbed cloth.
- Movement assembly
- Fitting together and lubricating a watch’s internal components so its mechanism can run and be tested.
P
- Pattern
- A template used to cut the separate pieces of a garment.
- Perlage
- A decorative finish made by overlapping small circular marks on a watch component with a rotating abrasive tool.
- PLM
- Product lifecycle management: coordinating a product’s information and development from its initial concept onward.
- A design applied to a textile’s surface, rather than formed by weaving the pattern into the cloth.
Q
- Quality assurance
- Planned processes intended to give confidence that products or services will meet agreed requirements.
- Quality control
- Checks and tests used to determine whether products or work meet specified requirements.
R
- Range planning
- Planning the mix of products in a collection or range, including their roles, quantities and price points.
- Regulation
- Adjusting a mechanical watch’s running rate to reduce how much time it gains or loses.
- Root cause analysis
- Investigating why a problem occurred so action can address its underlying cause.
S
- Sampling
- Making or assessing trial versions of a product before production; in beauty, sampling can instead mean providing trial quantities to customers.
- Savoir-faire
- Practical knowledge and skill developed through experience, especially in making or doing something.
- Seamstress
- A person whose job is sewing garments: assembling them, altering them to fit and repairing them, by hand or by machine.
- Silversmith
- A maker of vessels, tableware, objects and jewellery in silver, shaped from sheet or cast, then soldered and finished.
- SOP
- Standard operating procedure: documented steps for carrying out a recurring task consistently.
- Stone setting
- Securing gemstones in a metal mount so that each is held firmly and shows to best effect.
- Storm welt
- A welt with a raised edge against the upper that helps limit water entering the joint between the upper and sole.
- Suede
- Leather finished on the flesh side, the inner face of the skin, and sanded to a soft, velvety nap.
T
- 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.
- Tie-dye
- A resist-dyeing technique in which fabric is tied, folded or bound so some areas resist the dye.
W
- Watchmaker
- A specialist who assembles, adjusts, services or repairs watches and their movements.
- Welt
- A strip of material used in some shoe constructions to connect the upper and insole assembly to the outsole.
- Wholecut
- A shoe whose upper is cut principally from one piece of leather.