Mary Brooks Picken - A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion

A Dictionary of
Costume and Fashion

Historic and Modern

With over 950 Illustrations

MARY BROOKS PICKEN

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York

Copyright

Copyright 1985 by Joann J. Greener & Elizabeth M. Houck

Copyright 1957 by Mary Brooks Picken

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 1999, is an unabridged republication of The Fashion Dictionary published by Funk & Wagnalls, New York, in 1957.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Picken, Mary Brooks, 1886

[Fashion dictionary]

A dictionary of costume and fashion : historic and modern / Mary Brooks Picken.

p. cm.

Originally published under title: The fashion dictionary. New York : Funk & Wagnalls, 1957.

ISBN-13: 978-0-486-40294-9 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-486-40294-0 (pbk.)

1. Clothing and dress-Dictionaries. 2. Fashion-Dictionaries. 3. Textile fabrics-Dictionaries.I. Title.

TT503.P49 1999

746.9203-dc21

98-30715

CIP

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

40294006

www.doverpublications.com

This book is
affectionately dedicated
to my father
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS BROOKS
and to my husband
G. LYNN SUMNER

Contents

TO THE READER

This Book and You

THIS book provides you with a quick and ready reference for more than 10,000 words in the language of fashionwords associated primarily with wearing apparel and accessories and whatever goes into the making of them. Most of these words are not easily accessible elsewhere, as they are so often not to be found in the household dictionary of average size. When they are to be found in the dictionary, they are not always defined from a fashion point of view; and of course they are not assembled in groups for comparison or quick reference.

You who would know fashion and use it to express beauty and charm in your own clothes will find a study of this book invaluable. It will enable you to become familiar with the history of fashion. It will illuminate your reading of articles on fashion and of the advertising of fashion merchanise. And in planning your own clothes, it will help you to understand what goes with what and why, and to use fashion to your personal advantage.

Among other special features of this book, these may be noted: It includes the important stitches, laces, embroideries, and weaves you might be interested to know about, describing them so that you will recognize them at once; in many cases you will be able actually to do the stitches from the illustrations. It defines fabrics and leathers, generally specifies which garments and articles they are suitable for, and occasionally lists the qualities of the materials as they affect their choice for wear. It groups the different kinds of furs, and indicates which are real furs and which are imitations. You will find the book particularly helpful, for example, when you see something advertised and would like to learn the essential details. Hundreds of types of garments are given so that it is easy for you to identify the important feature of a silhouette and often to know something of its origin.

This book should prove an inspiration to those who desire to make a fancy-dress costume or to dress a pageant or play; for, with the illustrations and definitions of costumes, enough information is often available for the making or creation of those costumes. These historical costumes, being representative of a period or type, are suitable to wear for fancy dress.

Increase Your Fashion Vocabulary

THE language of fashion provides the everyday talk of many womenwhen shopping, when describing something seen or advertised or reported. She can make her talk more accurate and far more picturesque if she knows a silhouette or color or texture or design, knows what it is related to and also something of its history.

It is hoped that this book will increase the vocabulary of many, make fashion talk more interesting, and the reading of fashion material in the press more understandable and therefore exciting.

Fashion writers should find this book an inspiration. It should help them to make comparisons of fashion garments and to write descriptions that will make word-pictures for their readers. People in the trade, manufacturers, and designers should also find its illustrations and definitions useful, especially in helping them decide upon appropriate names for articles they design or create. Often they can take from the old a word that describes the article they have created, change it in some way to make it modern, or find a new way to spell it. The spelling of even ordinary words is often thus changed for copyrighted names and trademarks.

This book is no larger than the average novel; yet it carries in its pages the story of mankind. Fashion has always been influenced by modes of transportation, the architecture of a period, and the customs of the people. Prosperity and poverty are recorded in the fashions of the ages, as are frugality and extravagance.

Fashions have been named for men and women, for leaders, and for painters of note or vogue; and inventions have also had a part in contributing to the language of fashion. Until quite recently, very few fashions or items of dress have actually originated in America and practically all of those in the last half century. Dr. Paul H. Nystrom lists some of these in his book, Economics of Fashion, among them: the bungalow apron, jumper, middy blouse, Gibson Girl waist, the boyish form silhouette, union suits, rubber heels for shoes, health shoes, styles in nurses uniforms, and the slide fastener.

Names come quickly into use in fashion. This book aims to cover the majority of important ones of the past, though it cannot anticipate the future. When the name of a living person influences fashion, study that persons pictures in the press, actually see the garment or article illustrated. If an historical character influences the fashions, then by all means look up pictures of his person in your history books. If the work of a painter influences color or decoration or silhouette, study his works and see for yourself the items that are in vogue at the moment.

Keep This Book at Hand

FASHION writers delight in unusual words, making it desirable for the average person to be able to look up these words as he reads. When you read about fashions, keep this book at hand and use it. It will prove a boon because you can quickly find the definition of any word that is new to you or of one the full meaning of which you are not sure.

Study how to use familiar words more precisely and effectively and the new words correctly. You will be delighted with the gain in your speech, and consequently find all fashions more interesting and yourself able to discuss them more intelligently.

How To Use This Book

IF you want to look up the meaning or the spelling or an unusual pronunciation of a word, simply look for it as you would in the average dictionary. Every word is listed alphabetically; and it is printed in bold type so that you can find it quickly. Those words are capitalized that should always be spelled with a capital letter. When an entire word in the definition is printed in small capital letters, it means that you can also find a definition under that word, listed alphabetically or within a group.

When there is more than one meaning, each is numbered. The sense in which the word is generally used in the world of fashion is given firstthough it is not necessarily the most common usage otherwise. Indeed, we omit the most common usage when it has no bearing on our subject. The origin of the word is given if the story is of unusual interest.