Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fashion A-Z, An Illustrated Dictionary

My very talented sister is in the middle of doing an illustrated alphabet of microbes, but was having trouble coming up with species for J, Q, and X, understandably. When I was doing an A-Z series on famous chemists/scientists for my AP class, I thankfully had Joule, but faltered after van der Waals. So I'm always impressed when alphabets related to a certain topic actually have representatives for the less common letters. The Fashion A-Z: An Illustrated Dictionary, is only missing entries for X, but frankly, I can't think of anything to go in that section, so they get a gold star from me.

Even wondered what a jemmy, qiviut, or zori are? Now you can look it up even when the system is down!


I received this book to review from Laurence King Publishing; it's a mini version of the (presumably) more extensive full-size dictionary. For someone like me, who's a voracious reader and trivia collector, this dictionary is a delight -- it's everything I didn't realize I wanted to know about not just fashion, but also fabric types and sewing terms. Even better, it's helpful for reading historical fiction! When Ida Brown gives Laura Ingalls a triangular fichu as a wedding gift, elementary school me always imagined a tissue. What can I say -- the words rhyme, and that logic made sense at the time! Now, though, I know that a fichu is "...worn by women during the 18th and 19th c.'s as a neckerchief or shawl...made of fine lightweight fabrics such as lace or linen." When Scarlett O'Hara contemplates and then dismisses the idea of the black bombazine dress for the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, I no longer have to try to imagine a combination-bomb-and-magazine in dress form; instead, I know bombazine is "a twill or plain weave fabric...originated in ancient China and is one of the oldest known fabrics...it began, almost exclusively, to be dyed black due to its popularity as mourningwear." And when Meg March laments her dowdy tarlatan at Annie Moffat's party, I can correct my mental picture of her in a tartan dress (because I totally didn't realize I was confusing the two words!) and put her in a dress of "coarse, sheer, gauze-like cotton fabric woven in an open plain weave and typically stiffened with size." In other words, a giant cheesecloth-esque dress. 

A tarlatan dress, from the Kyoto Costume Institute, from around the same era as Little Women. 


I also really appreciate that this dictionary not only has descriptions of types of fabric (polyamide? sarcenet? drugget, anyone?) and clothing (toga, anorak, even power dressing!), it also has quite a few "ethnic" entries as well. From the Chinese cheongsam to the Russian ushanka to the South Asian kurta to the Native American bietle, it's a good "Huh, so that's what it's called!" reference book. It might seem like this kind of book is rendered obsolete by the availability of information on teh interwebs, but let me tell you why I still love this: I'm all about maximizing reading/learning time (this is why I love listening to podcasts while sewing!), so this dictionary has been my toothbrushing-time reading. It's perfect because the entries are nice and short and obviously it's not the kind of book one sits and reads through from beginning to end, but I always learn something new in the two minutes before my Sonicare buzzes to let me know that time is up.

I love that the giant letter illustrations that open each new section are actually thoughtfully designed: a herringbone weave H, a striped S, a dotted D, etc.  And oh hey look, it's a deerstalker cap and mine looks just like the illustration!


My only gripes with this dictionary are that 1) the illustrations are frequently for entries that seem more "common", whereas I would prefer to have an illustration of one of the more rare terms (I mean, I know what a lapel looks like; could you illustrate a larrigan instead?), and 2) they don't have an entry for justaucorps. Why does #2, matter, you ask? Because that's what I was working on all last week, and I would've loved to be like, don't know what the heck that is? Then enter the giveaway and find out when you finally get to look it up in the dictionary! Or, you know, just wait until I post about it and just look at my photos. I guess you could also click on the link and find out now, but if you don't, it'll be more surprising when I finally get around to taking and posting photos of my justaucorps.

But hey, did you catch that? LK Publishing is sponsoring a giveaway of this book here at Cation Designs! Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite "obscure" sewing term is for a chance to win your own copy of this fantastic little dictionary. I'll close the giveaway on Friday, June 28 at 11:59 pm PST. And if you haven't entered the other giveaway for an interfacing swatch set, go do it

36 comments:

  1. What a great reference book! I remember that bit about the fichu from the Little House books, too. I think my favorite obscure term would have to be soutache. As a kid, I imagined it to be something like a moustache for uniforms.

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  2. Oh my goodness, I'm so glad to hear that someone else is loath to waste little moments when reading could happen... Toothbrushing? Yes... Walking to the mailbox? Of course! Vacuuming? I've tried it! This book sounds like its right up my alley. I hope this counts as a sewing term... In the 18th century toddlers wore "pudding caps"... They were like little padded crash helmets! Some days I think I could use one. Maybe I should stop reading when I'm walking to the mailbox!

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  3. I don't have an obscure sewing term, but I did want to give your sister a bit of help for a X microbe. Xylella fastidiosa, it's a bacteria that causes Pierce's Disease of grapes among other things. I did my master's thesis on this particular disease; it involved going to lots of vineyards. ;)

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  4. Hmm, my favorite obscure sewing term might have to be bombast or bombastine, which always confuses me. Bombazine in Portuguese (I speak Portuguese fluently as my family is from Portugal) means corduroy, but bombast/bombastine is like hair or wool stuffing! It always trips me up!

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  5. I know what quivit is (she said while jumping up and down)! It is the wool of the musk ox and it feels like heaven. I feel so greedy, but add my name to the draw for this book. Please let me win.

    Thank you for yet another giveaway, and thanks to Laurence King as well, I do love their books.

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  6. Grommet! Probably not that obscure, but I was totally blanking when my friend taught it to me. I think I was mistaking the term for godet...

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  7. That sounds like a wonderful little reference book! Historical clothing terms have always fascinated me. Thanks for the chance to win!

    It may not be the most obscure sewing term but I always have to stop and remember what it actually is when I hear the term: bodkin - it's a long & narrow flat metal tool with a large eye that is useful for threading elastic. Works great if you want to thread elastic under coverstitching.

    I have a little textile terms dictionary of fabric types and weaves. And it has one solitary "X" entry! "Xanthating" which is "a process in making rayon. The chemical treatment of cellulose in which carbon disulphide reacts with alkali cellulose crumbs to produce the bright orange cellulose xanthate." I dare you to find a way to use that in a conversation, hehe.

    ~ Brooke

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  8. That book sounds fantastic- many thanks for the giveaway!

    I'm currently reading about a book about French seamstresses and women's fashion in the period preceding the French revolution, so I just learned what a mantua is: not an overcoat, as I had presumed, but a late 17th-early 18th century loose over-gown that quickly became popular in part because the newly legal seamstresses guilds were allowed to make them!

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  9. Ooh sounds like a fabulous little book. My new favorite obscure sewing term would probably be a weskit. I thought it was quite a funny name when I first ran across it in vintage patterns.

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  10. My obscure term is actually a colour - Puce. I always thought it was a sort of icky beige/green shade, turns out it's actually a brownish purple, which makes a lot more sense when reading period literature when people are so happy with their puce coloured gown!

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  11. lusekofte - the horrible itchy traditional sweater from Norway. Pretty designs but after wearing one for Christmas pictures every year (or so it seems), I only really like the word. My family ignored the tradtionally-mostly-worn-by-men bit and stuffed us all into one.

    More seriously- fichu. We have fichu (not sure why) and neckerchiefs in the collection where I intern and thanks to my boss being a 18th and 19th century specialist, I'm learning the differences.

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  12. I do love all these crazy terms, and like you I get a mental image that can be hard to shake. A modern term I always found weird was 'stitch witchery'. Or needle scarf?

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  13. You shared some interesting words with us. I cannot share an obscure word, because I do not know any. But your book would be a wonderful prize. Thanks!

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  14. All these years, I thought I probably had some sort of compulsive input problem just like in Short Circuit. It's relief learning that I'm not the only person trying to make sure I read at every possible moment - toothbrushing time is prime time, as is walking to the grocery store, laundry, and lulls in conversation. Just kidding. Pretty much.

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  15. I think the fichu/tissue confusion is completely understandable and I would have done the same myself. In fact I'm pretty sure I did make the same mistake with tarlatan.

    At the moment I can't think of any obscure words, but "dickie" is one that was new to me recently. I had never heard that in my life before and had to look it up!

    My actual favourite word of all time is "haberdashery", because of my love for the physical stuff, but also because it's just such a great word. Not sure if that translates in American English though? (it's notions e.g. buttons, ribbons, trims etc).

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  16. This sounds like an awesome book!
    I think one of my favorite sewing works is crepe, it's not very obscure but it is fun to say, and when my sisters and I were younger and at the fabric store with my mom she would get really annoyed when we called it creep! Actually there are a lot of fabric terms you can mispronounce like that.

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  17. my native language is spanish but I taught myself to sew with books English. So when I try to sew anything using Burdastyle in spanish all the words are obscure to me! Thanks!

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  18. I like the term "gusset", but I can tell you it's not an easy thing to make/do! My father was a surgeon and he used to say that some patients seemed as if they might need a gusset to close the surgical incision :-)

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  19. I was going to say that I know no obscure sewing terms though I mostly use French words and the English ones I used online (plus whatever basice Sewing Lexicon I gathered from Manequim, Patrones, Burda, La Mia Boutique and KnipMode respectively, LOL!) but I remember that we use AUNE as a standard mesure to sell fabric here. When I looked it up online, it has a plethora of possible ethymologies but let's settle for Medieval latinized "alnus" (Ref: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aune)

    Here, in Haïti, it is 118 cm of fabric. And my grandmother used to have a mahogany stick that measured 1 AUNE. (stupid autocorrect won't let me use small caps !@#$%? )

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  20. Ok, so not an obscure term, but I recently learned the etymology of a very common term: denim. It comes from the fabric's original French name "Serge de Nimes", which was shortened over time to denim. (I love etymology!)

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  21. [Spoiler Alert] So actually, justaucorps is one of my favorite obscure terms-- a men's coat from roughly the 18th century that will be recognizable to any viewer of "period" movies (Patriot, Pirates of the Carribean], think fit and flared/numerous buttons and buttonholes. I could pepper you with more terms, thanks to the "History of Costume" class from my days as a fashion design student....

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  22. I don't have any favorite obscure sewing terms, to be honest I have to google what "obscure" means because english is not my first language. And also, I don't know that many sewing terms because I have only been sewing for a while, learning from the internet as I go along.
    But I do love learning the what, why, when, etc about everything. My first present from my mother was a thick english dictionary when I was a little girl and I remember I tried to memorize everything lol ... I love google because I get to find out about everything ... I would love to be able to read the book ...
    Anyway, thank you very much for the chance ... :)
    melanie (hippolicious@hotmail.com)

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  23. That looks like a great book! Thank you for the chance of winning it. My fav obscure term is Ulster coat, because that's where I'm from! And I can tell you that a good warm wool coat is stand requirement for most of the year in these parts - and I think it was the style of coat that Sherlock Holmes wore too!! ;)

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  24. I always get a little flustered when trying to define the differences between male neck ruffles. Jabot? Cravat? ??

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  25. This book does look like a lot of fun! But, yes, I hear what you are saying. The very title of the book indicates that you should learn something, some new words. And, to pick the most obvious for the letters of the alphabet, not as learner friendly. But, put my name in the hat please, as I would like to have a look and I have a nephew that may want to learn about fashion!

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  26. p.s. I'm a fairly new sewist so don't have a favourite obscure sewing term. I did learn recently what "false hem" means.

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  27. I like AGLET. I didn't even know it was a word until one of my 8th graders (I teach English) mentioned it a few months ago. Since I'm planning on making a 1490's Italian Renaissance gown for our ren fest next month, I've been reading a lot about aglets because they were fond of tie-on sleeves and such. They even had sumptuary laws concerning aglets at one point; what they could be made of, how many you could have, and so on!

    Bonus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evcsj1gx1CE

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  28. Haberdashery, so fun to say!

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  29. I think my most recent term of note is "guaging" - it means the same thing as cartridge pleating, which I've known for a long time, I just didn't know there's another term for it.

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  30. What a cool book! My not-so-cool sewing term - gingham. I read Little House on the Prairie OBSESSIVELY, and learned so many words/terms from it, including gingham. Except no one used these terms in real life, so one time I had reason to say it, and pronounced it "jinj - ham" (first part sounds like the ninj in ninja, second part is tasty pig). My mom still won't let me live that one down 15 years later.

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  31. Love,love books...and my little band of artists and crafters learn at home (or wherever)so another book is always welcome. I think my least favorite sewing term is "feed dogs". Sewing terms are so fun and elegant, who thought of "feed dogs"?
    Love your blog!!!

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  32. I like buttonhole twist, mostly because my favorite childhood book was the "Tailor of Gloucester" by Beatrix Potter. When the tailor falls ill and is unable to finish the waistcoat the mayor commissioned for his wedding, the mice finish the job, except for the last buttonhole, because they have "No more twist!" I'd love to read about more sewing terms. Thanks for the chance to win the book!

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  33. Um. I may or may not have just discovered that tarlatan does not imply a filmy tartan evening dress. I love the word organza 'cos it's fun to say! It's not at all obscure but I feel like I don't know any really good obscure ones. Though I do have a good laugh over weskit every time I see it in my grandma's patterns

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  34. This book would be so handy for me! I'm always coming across weird clothing descriptions in my reading. Heck - I even had a hard time figuring out what a godet was lol. That was before the internet sewing community though. I guess that's my current fav because I haven't seen this book to know any other obscure names of terms. Thanks for hosting the giveaway!

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  35. Okay, not a sewing term, per se, but "frou-frou" is a French onomotopoeia for the sound a silk skirt makes as you walk.

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  36. I know what qiviut is too, and I even *have* some, courtesy of an incredibly generous friend who took a trip to Alaska. I think my favorite sewing thing is a clapper, just because it sounds like it should be something that applauds you when you try on your newly completed project for the first time, instead of just something that helps you press heavy seams straight.

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