Sartorial Jargon: Fashion, Clothing, Apparel, Costume And Dress

Quick & Easy Illustrations by Mai Manaloto

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As we go further in this intellectual discourse on fashion, it is imperative for a certified fashionista to be able to comprehend terminologies used in the industry. In this blog post I will discuss a few, but highly essential, terms used in this ever growing and evolving trade.

How do terms such as fashion, clothing, apparel, costume and dress differ from one another? Each word is found to be very similar to the others but their difference is definite. Each term has a level of appropriation of use for various scenarios in the fashion industry. Some terms are simply more general whereas the others are more unambiguous.

There is a difference between clothing and fashion. Clothes are tangible material products while fashion is a symbolic product. Therefore, clothes are the output of fashion. Fashion involves branding, marketing, merchandising, lifestyle and storytelling while clothing is generally used for protection, modesty and aiding in identity formation.

The term apparel on the other hand is used in the industry to describe cutting-edge fashion and/or basic garments such as a shirt, uniform, active wear and so on. In a nutshell, apparel is any textile item for the body, unlike clothing which is a more general term in fashion. Clothing is anything attached or altered on the body which is thoroughly discussed in my previous blog post entitled Misguided Fashion: The Misconception in Clothing.

Costume pertains to the history of clothing and appearance during a particular period. For example, the finely woven linen and invention of purple dye during the ancient Egyptian civilization, the draped and gathered silhouettes of the ancient Greeks, the togas, strophium (bra) and subligar (panty) of the ancient Romans, the sartorial excess or the heavily ornamented clothing filled with geometric/Arabic patterns of the Byzantine empire during the middle ages, the ruff collar and elaborate layered dressing with slashes during the Renaissance period, the romantic frills and ruffles of the rococo period and the dark hues and bustle of the Victorian period.

Dress is more of an anthropologist term when referring to all forms of attire. From an anthropological perspective, dress is a function of complex set of motives that is interdependent in factors such as the physical environment/form, psychological state, and social conditions and norms. Whereas in fashion dress is a form of clothing where the upper bodice is attached or connected to the free flowing lower bodice creating a skirt hem.

As shown, all these terms have varying concepts but they have a common goal. That is to describe and lead to a better understanding of the past, present and future of the fashion industry.