Hey Girls,

This is an extract from an article over 60 years ago - still true today. Enjoy...from a dignified mature woman who likes limited income clothing

Pauline xxxxxxx


"A Girl’s Guide To Understanding Fashion Writing"

As previously reported, in 1950, British novelist/critic Marghanita Laski (aka Honorary Jezebel No. 1) called bullshit on women's magazines. She also turned her piercing, unwavering eye on those who critique and write about clothes (Lucky editors, are you listening?).
"My study is of the fashion writer in the glossy monthlies whose language, while representing the quintessence of glamour to thousands of women, must be still virtually incomprehensible to millions more," she wrote.
"It is in the bold misuse of our contemporary vocabulary that the art of the fashion writer is seen at its best; and for those who may wish to penetrate into hitherto unexplored fields I append an all too short glossary." "Cheap Clothes For Fat Old Women", Laski's informative and quite funny glossary, after the jump.



"I should add that the abbreviation G.W. indicates a Glamour Word, extremely evocative in the right context and of no real meaning whatsoever." — Laski

Amusing: cheap.
Bold: G.W.; e.g., b. back-sweeping fullness.
Brief: very short in length: e.g., b. bolero, b. panties.
Bulge, Unseemly: stomach fat.
Classic: English garment (shoes, hat, suit) barely susceptible to fashion changes.
Crisp: G.W.; e.g., a c. silhouette, c. touches of white.
Demure: (of hats and hair styles) those which symmetrically frame the face.
Dignified: (i) of women: old; (ii) of clothes: for old women.
Dramatic: virtually unwearable, but photographs well.
-Est: Intensive used instead of "very" ; e.g., palest gray, softest and finest worsteds.
Everywhere: in a very few places; e.g., sable stoles are e.
Flattery: G.W.; e.g., the f. of mink, diamonds, orchids against your skin.
Frankly: would be ugly if we didn't tell you it wasn't; e.g., a f. jagged hemline.
Fuzz, Unsightly: superfluous hair on the legs.
Generous: (i) the designer is making nothing out of the dress length; e.g., g. cuffs; (ii) fat.
Hairs, Obstinate or Recalcitrant: the unwanted mustache; e.g., tweak out those o. (or r.) h.
Important: G.W.
Jaunty: G.W.
Limited-Income: cheap.
Midriff: stomach
Nostalgic: G.W.
Older: (of women) old.
Team: to wear one thing with another; e.g., t. your palest gray dress with the subtle flattery of a brief scarlet bolero.
That, Those: adjectives of distaste and elimination; e.g., eliminate t. unsightly bugle, or, as above, tweak out t. recalitrant hairs.
To sum things up, Laski translates the title of her column, "Cheap Clothes For Fat Old Women" into fashion editor speak: "Limited-Income Clothess for Dignified Maturity." Were she alive today, surely Lucky would drive Ms. Laski insane.
Cheap Clothes For Fat Old Women [The Atlantic, fee req'd]

Maybe you have examples of double speak too?

I fear the above to be too complex for my simple mind. Still trying to work out what G.W. means!
Like all self proclaimed experts the critic I feel is the worst of the breed. When you are talentless and unaccomplished in any subject be it in fashion, art, the theatre or even wine what is simpler than be a critic. Most talk a highfalutin non language that us thick mortals don't understand. I well remember viewing a house that was for sale some years ago that had suffered some subsidence. In the agents description it said...'One of the redeeming features of this property are the sloping bedroom floors which are in sympathy with the hill outside'
xxx

Not sure if you are saying that I am a prat or you think Laski is. P xx

I'd never call anyone a prat. xxx

whatever.

What a collection of phrases in such a short post: "worst of the breed", "I well remember", "talentless and unaccomplished" "self proclaimed" and even a piece of drivel from an estate agent who you were able to see through immediately and whose exact phrase you are able to memorise perfectly - gosh I wish I was as thick a mortal as you Susie.

Susie's reply regarding estate agents is not out of context. A statement of this nature is in the eyes of an estate-agent, an added bonus to attracting attention to the property, with more un-substansiated banter to follow, when the office phone begins too ring. . .