what did you call that? a fashion vocabulary

If you’ve spent any time on social media in recent months, you’ve probably been bombarded by quizzes with titles like “What City Should You Live In” or “What State Fits You Best” or even “The Dialect Quiz – do you call it Soda or Pop?” While these can be amusing to take (and even more amusing to see your friend’s results) they highlight our linguistic differences. The same holds very true for fashion around the world.

This was highlighted this past week when discussing a shopping experience with a colleague from Canada. He had gone into a Chicago department store during the winter and asked for a tuque. The salesperson had no idea what he was talking about. He asked me if I knew what it was and I confessed that I did, only because my brother and I were fans of the early 80s SCTV duo Bob & Doug McKenzie. But then I told him that where I grew up, we called that same hat a toboggan. To which another co-worker said “A toboggan is sled where I come from.” Is it any wonder we don’t always understand each other?

Other conversations led to interesting revelations – when you hear the word “jumper” in a fashion sense, what does it mean to you? To me, it has always meant a dress worn over a blouse or shirt. But in Australia or Britain, it means a sweater or sweatshirt.

Knowing my love of all things shoe-related, I investigated the word “pump”. While to me that means a dressy high-heeled shoe or stiletto, the British once used the term to describe a gym shoe and frequently use it today to reference a flat shoe used for ballroom dancing. The definition originated in England in the 1550s in reference to the shoes worn by male servants. It was said that the sound that the shoes made when they walked sounded like a water pump.

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Speaking of gym shoes, I’ll never forget the day many years ago that one of my Minnesota bred co-workers said “Hey Susan, we need to hurry up to get to the Metro. Put on your tenny runners and let’s go!” To which my 21 year old self replied “What?” While my research seems to show that the term is very popular in Texas, what my co-worker meant was “Put on your tennis shoes!” Confused yet?

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The term “thong” has tripped up many an international traveler too. In discussing this topic with our very own Alexandra, she shared that on a trip to Australia as an 8 year old, she was told to put on her thongs for a walk on the beach. Her puzzled, horrified look revealed to her hosts that she didn’t know that they meant that she should put on her flip-flops. (Note – I grew up calling them thongs too.)

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And then there are the terms that are beautiful yet rarely used. My favorite among these is “frock.” We would probably refer to it as a fancy dress. Zoe favorite designer Tracy Reese frequently uses the word in her collections but you rarely see it anywhere else. Perhaps because its origins are actually British for loose, long garment with wide, full sleeves, we have a hard time thinking of it as beautiful party wear today.

So pack your jumpers, your pumps, and your thongs and get ready to see the world in a whole new way!

• Author Details

Susan Gerock

susan.gerock@shopatzoe.com