Abstract patterns

Objects, which are not portrayed in a realistic-concrete way, but are shown, reduced to their most important characteristics

American Sportswear

Style of clothing, which orientates itself on American team sports

Angora

Fine and light hair of the Angora rabbit. The yarns or fabrics from this hair is particularly soft

Animal-Print

Term for animal patterns and print patterns, which look like animal furs and skins

Anorak

Casual jacket with hood, quite often made from weatherproof materials. Originally in form of a slip-over jacket

Aubergine

Colour of the aubergine fruit. Colour mixed from violet and brown

Badges

Decoration of clothing. Often eye-catching, printed or embroidered labels

Baggy trousers

Wide trousers (often jeans or cord) with extremely large pockets

Bandeau form

Top with straight décolleté, as if produced from one band. The band can be gathered in the centre to emphasise the décolleté

Basic

Name for basic items in fashion, which can be combined and coordinated with other items

Batik

Designs, which are similar to patterns used with wax batik technique. In case of the original, the fabric will be covered with wax, whereby the wax is broken during colouring. As a result, the patterned areas are blurred, with characteristic colour veins running through them

Beach fashion

Casual clothing, which is mainly worn at the beach or the promenade

Black Tie

Request on an invitation to wear a dinner suit at a certain event

Blazer

One- or double-breasted hip length jacket with collar and lapel. In its classic form also with gold buttons and sewed-on pockets.

Blue

Blue is the colour of the sky: the light luminous Ultramarine of the day and the dark almost black shade of the night. Since the end of the13th century, the colour is linked to the world power by the blue in the king’s coat of the French kings and became as the court colour of Louis 14th in the second half of the 17th century the general fashion colour in France. The aristocracy of the other European courts also followed the French example. On the other hand, blue, with the growing significance of black for official robes since the 16th century, became the characteristic of the lower classes. Blue clothing was worn by servants, tradesmen, orphans, and paupers. Blue work clothing, which was worn in the factories of the 19th century, maintained its significance during the 20th century, with the overall being added in the Twenties. The jeans, which the Austrian Levi Strauss had produced in America since 1850 from hardwearing blue cotton fabric, was discovered by American College students as leisure wear in the Thirties, becoming accepted every-day clothing between 1960 and 1970.

Boarder style

Sporty casual clothing in the style of snowboarders and freestylers

Bodywear

Name for corsetry and lingerie

Boiled wool

Fabric or knitwear from wool is boiled to achieve a slightly felted look.

Bolero

Short, very tight, button-less jacket with or without arms

Bomber jacket

Term for traditional and socially accepted men's clothing for business and social events.

Boot Cut

Trousers with lot of foot width, so that boots fit underneath. Often also referred to as boot legs.

Burberry check

Clearly defined checks in white, black, and red on a beige ground

Button-down collar

Shirt collar, which is buttoned to the lapels at the front of the shirt

Camouflage

Term for fashion in a busy patchy camouflage print in natural colours

Capri trousers

Three quarter long slim trousers with short side slits

Cardigan

One- or double breasted, buttoned V-neck jacket without collar

Cargo pants

Wide trousers in work clothing style. Typical are the large sewn-on pockets on the trouser legs.

Cargo style

Extremely wide tops and trousers in work clothing style. Typical characteristics are the large sewn-on pockets.

Cashmere

A fine, tight undercoat of hair, which the Cashmere goat loses once a year. Due to the large global demand and a shortage in the market, high-quality Cashmere yarns are often exposed to significant price increases.

Casual

English for informal, sporty, and comfortable, however, not sloppy fashion in contrast to formal clothing

Chanel style

Style, which was invented in the Fifties by Coco Chanel for suits, overcoats, dresses, etc. This style is not only still used today by the House of Chanel, creating new variations all the time, but is also varied by other manufacturers as the Chanel look.

Changeant

Fabric with different coloured cross and longitudinal threads. Depending on the incidence of light, a glittering impression is created.

Chasuble

Long waistcoat, which can be varied in accordance with the length of a dress.

Chimney red

Fire brick red

Cigarette trousers

Slim straight-cut trousers. Very often with pleat

Classic designs

Traditional patterns in men’s fashion such as pinstripe, dogtooth check or shepherd check

College style

Sportswear style, orientating itself on the clothing style of American universities

Colorit

Another term for colouring and for colour combinations for colourful designs

Colour blocking

Blocking colour. This means opposing different coloured areas to create striking colour contrasts.

Comeback

Tern for something, which went out of fashion, but is now at the height of fashion again.

Cool

In fashion, this is a term for a trends, where the – mainly young – wearer feels completely "in" and superior with respect to other target groups.

Cotton

Natural fibre from seed hair of the subtropical cotton plant, which can be processed into various fabrics. Untreated cotton breathes very well and is tear proof

Crocodile leather optics

Structure and look of crocodile skins

Dark Denim

Mainly dark, evenly coloured Denim wear, where the yarn is fully penetrated with dye. No bleaching is used.

Denim

Jeans fabric with blue longitudinal and cross treads. The warp threads may have other colours apart from blue; due to the white weft threads, the back looks almost white.

Destroyed Denim

This is Denim, which may be torn through mechanical influence and may also have holes

Diagonal

Fabric with well recognizable pattern, which is achieved by weaving or colour patterns.

Dirty Denim

Slightly dirty looking Denim optics, which is achieved by using a brownish colouring that will not wash out.

Donegal

Carded yarn tweed with hand-woven character from boucle yarns. Traditionally, the warp is lighter and the weft is darker.

Drainpipe trousers

Slim, occasionally tight-fitting trousers without a crease

Drapé

Softly falling pleats, also gathered pleats

Drawstrings

Round, elastic cords with stoppers, which regulate the seam widths of tops and bottoms.

Easy-Care

Stain resistant and iron-free. Easy care applies to washing machine and tumble dryer programmes.

Ecru

Unbleached shades, natural white, crushed white

Elastan

Collective term for elastic threads from Polyurethane (PU), which provides fabrics and knitwear with elastic recovery, thereby making them less prone to creases.

Emblem

Badge

Fade-outs

Optics, which look washed out, irregular bleached or discoloured (mainly with Denim)

Fake Fur

Normally animal skin with hair; in the technical language, skins from smaller animals, such as calf, goat, sheep or lamb are referred to as furs. 

Felt

Non-woven ware, where the wool fibres are hardened through heat, humidity, as well as by mechanical and chemical treatment.

Filigree patterns

Finely drawn patterns with ornaments, Arabesques, and spiral decorations.

Fine quality hair

Term for high quality wools from Cashmere or Angora goats

Finish

Refining of fabrics, which changes the optics, feel or characteristics

Fishermen’s trousers

Slim, three quarter long trousers, also with turn-ups

Five Pocket

Casual flat-front trousers or jeans without fold with two back and two slanted pockets as well as a small money pocket.

Flanell

Woven fabric from cotton, wool mixture, wool or viscose. The woven fabric can be roughened up on one or on both sides and is therefore particular soft, warm, and snuggly. Flannel is a particular favourite with sportswear clothing and bedding.

Flare trousers

Trousers, which become significantly wider below the knee, i.e. are trapeze-shaped at the bottom. The foot width is very large and “swings” when walking.

Flat fabric

Smooth sportswear fabric, e.g. poplin or fine wool gabardine

Flausch

Material from staple fibre thread with a more than 2 mm long fibre pile with nap, which is processed in nap direction.

Fleece

Term for strongly roughened up qualities, which originate from sports fashion. Due to price aspects mainly made from artificial fibres; more expensive than wool or cotton.

Hair of the newly sheared sheep or in outdoor fashion the warming insert between top fabric and liner.

Formal clothing

Term for traditional and socially accepted men's clothing for business and social events.

Frock Coat

Originally festive coats for men during the 19th century. Today it is back in fashion as a long, slim jacket.

Fur velours

Lamb velours, whose meat side has been finished velour like and whose hair side is on the warming inside.