The fashion industry is littered with jargony terms, convoluted ideas and fancy words that actually have simple meanings. For example: Flagship? That’s just a big store. And a lookbook? An online catalogue.
We put together a list of terms in the fashion world that could benefit from a little clarification. While popularized by style snobs, designers, marketers and enthusiastic PR, turns out, these concepts aren’t as complicated as they initially seem.
Atelier: A French word for a 1,000 sq. ft. closet in Soho
Athleisure: Lycra and sneakers, everywhere
Bespoke: Clothing that will cost more and take 8-12 weeks to ship
CFDA: The people in charge of cleaning up the fashion calendar
Creative director: An overworked designer
Cruise collection: A collection invented to get rich people to spend money during a slow sales period
Customization: A $10,000 handbag ruined by stickers or spray paint
Cult brand: A brand you’ve never heard of, that somehow has 500,000 Instagram followers
Contemporary: Cheaper luxury
Diffusion line: A brand-awareness strategy from the 1990s
Direct-to-consumer: Can’t afford wholesale
Fashion blogger: A rich millennial with an iPhone
Fashion calendar: A trap to get people to attend fashion shows 11 months of the year
Fast fashion: The root of all fashion evil. Also, where everybody secretly shops
Flagship: A store
Haute couture: Designer clothing not meant for use by normals
Heritage brand: A brand that’s been around since before e-commerce
Hypebeast: If you have to ask, you’ll never know
Influencer marketing: A very expensive Instagram post that’s likely devoid of an #ad disclaimer
Lifestyle brand: Literally any brand
Lookbook: An online catalogue
Personalization: We’ll slap your initials on it and charge you more
Plus-size fashion: It’s about time
Ready-to-wear: Designer clothing intended for actual purchasing (with enough money)
Resale: A luxury investment worth more than real estate
See now buy now: An earth-shaking movement in the fashion world that will introduce seasonal collections in their … appropriate season
Snapchat: The platform that lets brave brands be #authentic
Sneakerhead: Someone with too much closet space and free time
Social commerce: A false promise made by Pinterest
Sustainable fashion: Sounds good in theory
Transparency: An attempt to make retail seem less evil, most likely found on Kickstarter or Snapchat
Wearables: Still mostly Fitbits
Zine: Branded content packaged for hip youths
