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Vocabulary

hue the color or shade of an object; primary /secondary ~s red, yellow, blue / Violet value the lightness or darkness of a color tint adding white to a color shade created when black is added to a color neutrals black, white, and gray. fashion Type of clothing that is widely popular at any given time apparel General term that includes men's, women's, and children's clothing garment Any major article of clothing fad Temporary, passing fashion or item that has great appeal to many people for a short amount of time, then dies out quickly classic Item that continues to be popular and acceptable over a long period of time even though fashions change haute couture "high fashion" - Original, individually designed pieces ready-to-wear RTW - Apparel that is mass-produced in factories according to standard sizes as opposed to being custom made fashion cycle Periodic popularity, disappearance, and later reappearance of specific styles or general shapes....a cycle of the rise, popularization, and decline of styles dress code written or unwritten rules of what people should or should not be worn by a group of people peer pressure force that makes people want to be like their friends texture element of design concerned with the surface quality of goods, or how they feel and look sample The model or trial garment made up exactly as it will look when sold. stylist Person who redesigns existing garments rather than creating new fashion designs. Also, one who advises about styles in apparel or other categories of goods. notions small items such as thread, elastic or buttons that become permanent part of the garment dressy adjective dressy clothes are worn on formal occasions full-length coat, dress, or skirt goes down to your feet homespun clothes are made from cloth that someone has produced at home ill-fitting clothes are the wrong size for the person wearing them a low-cut / plunging dress or blouse shows a woman’s chest and the top part of her breasts because it has a low neckline off-the-peg clothes are not made to fit a particular person prim clothes are neat, sensible, and show very little of your body rolled-up sleeves or trousers have their ends folded over several times to make them shorter a single-breasted jacket has one row of buttons slimming making you look thinner than you really are sloppy clothes are loose and informal sporty clothes are designed to be worn for sport or on informal occasions two-piece consisting of two matching pieces of clothing, one for the top part of your body and one for the bottom part

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Fashion Idioms

after the fashion of someone or something – in the manner or style of someone or

something. She walks down the street after the fashion of a grand lady. The parish

church was built after the style of a French cathedral.

after a fashion 1. if you do something after a fashion, you manage to do it although not

very well I can paint after a fashion, but I'm certainly not as good as you. 2. almost, but

not completely 'A vegetarian diet is much healthier.' 'That's true after a fashion, although

I don't believe all meat is bad for you.' What he said is true after a fashion, though a few

of his facts were wrong.

come into fashion to become stylish or fashionable. Do you think that a design like this

will ever come into fashion? That kind of dance will never come into fashion.

fashion something into something to make, form, or convert something into something else. He fashioned the newspaper into a temporary rain hat. Sarah fashioned

the clay into a little bowl.

fashion something on something to model something on something else; to pattern

something after something else. She fashioned her dress on something she had seen in a

history book. Donna fashioned the plan on the one Robert had used.

fashion something out of something to make something from something; to convert

something into something else. He tried to fashion a dog out of balloons. Elaine was

expert at fashioning a bow out of chocolate.

go out of fashion and go out of style; go out to become unfashionable; to become

obsolete. That kind of furniture went out of style years ago. I hope this kind of thing never

goes out of fashion. It went out years ago.

like it's going out of fashion (informal) if you use something like it's going out of

fashion, you use large amounts of it very quickly. Emma spends money like it's going out

of fashion.

in fashion in style; current and socially acceptable. Is that kind of thing still in fashion? It

won't be in fashion very long.

out of style and out of fashion not fashionable; old-fashioned; obsolete. (See also go

out of fashion.) John's clothes are really out of style. He doesn't care if his clothes are out

of fashion.

a fashion victim (humorous) an impolite way of referring to someone who buys too many fashionable clothes She's a complete fashion victim! Why else would she pay £100

for a pair of jeans?

parrot-fashion (British & Australian) if you learn something parrot-fashion, you are

able to repeat the words, but you do not understand their meaning. When I went to

Sunday school, we had to recite passages from the Bible parrot-fashion.

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A good piece of advice C. JoyBell C: It's not very easy to grow up into a woman. We are always

taught, almost bombarded, with ideals of what we should be at every age in our lives: "This is what you should wear at age twenty", "That is what you must act like at age twenty-five", "This is what you should be doing when you are seventeen." But amidst all the many voices that bark all these orders and set all of these ideals for girls today, there lacks the voice of assurance. There is no comfort and assurance. I want to be able to say, that there are four things admirable for a woman to be, at any age! Whether you are four or forty-four or nineteen! It's always wonderful to be elegant, it's always fashionable to have grace, it's always glamorous to be brave, and it's always important to own a delectable perfume! Yes, wearing a beautiful fragrance is in style at any age!

DISCUSSION

1. What things do you consider the most important for a woman, a young lady? 2. Are there any assumptions about what a girl should look like and what she is

supposed to wear at the age of 14, 18, 20? 3. How would you characterize a Belarusian woman?

Tips for you

Show Skin Strategically. Looking truly sexy involves knowing what to bare – and what to keep under wraps. Otherwise, where's the mystery? "Choose one – only one – body part and show it off," advises Jen Rade, stylist to Jenna Fischer and Angelina Jolie. "If it's cleavage, don't show your legs. If it's your legs, stay covered on top."

Accessorize in Brights. If you've got a closet full of neutrals – be they navy, black, camel, or gray – add energy with boldly hued shoes and bags. Not only is a hunter green satchel more lively than ho-hum black, but it's also surprisingly versatile. Feeling really brave? Wear a neutral base with shoes and a bag in two different complementary colors.

Layering. The Fashion Spot Snowbird style and fresh faces were abound at Toronto Fashion Week

Spring/Summer 2014 as we highlight the major runway trends. Layering is an essential part of any styling arsenal; when the weather gets chilly, we pile on the garments. But Fall 2013’s runways urged us to do so strategically. Playing with length and silhouette, some of the ultra structured looks of recent seasons have been replaced, and in some cases incorporated into, new layered style.

As if by request, some of our top designers finally put to bed one of our biggest fashion debates of recent years: are leggings pants? Can they be worn with merely a tunic or a top? Yes. And we now have permission to take it a step further, by layering

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actual pants underneath shift dresses and longer tops. Think of your leather (real or faux) pants and leggings as the base of an outfit. The first step to creating a chic ensemble piece by piece.

The queen of cool, Isabel Marant, created the ultimate legging and bodycon pant collection by giving us monochrome looks that were accented by simple studded hems. Chances are you have similar pieces in your wardrobe already. Black leggings? A black tank? A sheer long-sleeved black top? A gray tunic or mini dress? A skinny scarf? One of her standout looks was a patterned T-shirt underneath a sheer black one-shoulder overlay.

But Marant was far from the only designer in the layering hit category. From BCBGMaxAzria and Altuzarra to labels we might consider a bit more buttoned up like Ports 1961 and Mulberry, you're going to get an eyeful of inspiration. The next time you know you'll need extra layers to brave a rainy or snowy day, let this slideshow be your guide.

The shirt-under-dress look offers a stylish way to extend the life of your strapless and sleeveless frocks by transforming them into fall-appropriate pieces. The formula is simple and sweet: layer button-downs, turtlenecks and even thinly-knit sweaters underneath summer dresses for a two-piece combination that’s unexpectedly chic and put-together.

DISCUSSION: 1. Is layering in fashion now? 2. Which ideas of layering do you accept and

which not? Why? 3. Are you brave enough to put on a shirt-under-

dress?

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GOING OUT: DRESSING UP AND DRESSING DOWN I. Youth Subcultures & Class Identities

One way of thinking about different subcultural groupings within young British fashion is in terms of class identities. Subcultures such punks, hippies, crusties, bikers and goths have tended - in one way or another - to challenge the traditional values of smart and respectable dress. On the other hand, mods, soul boys (and girls), teds, skinheads and home-boys have usually emphasised a “sharper” style of dress, though of course in diverse ways. This opposition between “smart” and “scruffy” clothes bear some relation to class allegiances insofar as dress codes which place great value on clothes “looking new” are more often adopted by working-class young people, while scruffier “bohemian” styles are more likely to have middle-class wearers. But often, subcultural styles of dress confront and confound mainstream expectations about people’s position in social structure. The above, however, is too simplistic a formula to apply to all UK youth subcultures, especially as these styles in themselves are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and most young people, in any case, are likely to draw on a range of possible influences. The enormous increase in the student population, for instance, is bound to affect the class delineations of subcultural style, as many more working-class young people enter a terrain which had previously been a middle-class preserve.

WORD STUDY

I. Pick out the words used to describe clothes and style of dress & provide their dictionary definitions.

II. Explain the meaning of the following words and word combinations:delineation allegiance mainstream preserve

mutually exclusive dress code class identity terrain

COMPREHENSION I. Answer the following questions:

1. How would you account for the opposition between “smart” and scruffy clothes?

2. Can you call the subcultures in Great Britain mutually exclusive? Why (not)?

3. Sum up the information about youth subcultures mentioned in the excerpt and give as many facts on each subcultural grouping as possible.

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Student A crossword What is 1 down / 11 across?

1 8

12

2b o 3h e m i a n

16

6p r e s e r v e

5

13m a i n s t r e a m

10p a 15s t i c h e

4i d e n t i t y u

14t b

11

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17

r e

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r r 18r u 19n w a y 22

7

a t

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9p o s t m o d e r n

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21a p p a r e l

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II. The Zeitgeist of the 90s It may seem all too easy to characterise British youth cultures in terms of

fashion styles. Nevertheless, dress codes are obviously crucial keys to understanding how the lines are drawn between different identities in Britain. After all, the way that we dress can serve either to confirm or to subvert various facets of our identities, such us our gender, race, class, and age. Clothes also reflect our perceptions of the historical epoch in which we live – how we relate to the cultural mood of the day. The postmodern preoccupations of the last decades of the twentieth century, for example, are linked to nostalgia, pastiche and what might be better described as cultural hybridity (mixing different styles of fashion, music, or anything else). Contemporary fashions conspicuously play upon these cultural themes and, in the 1990s, styles from every previous decade have resurfaced to evoke the spirit (or

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Zeitgeist) of late twentieth-centuryBritain. “Now” is in many ways a recycling of previous Zeitgeist.

FOLLOW UP I. Explain the meaning of the following words and expressions: zeitgeist, nostalgia, subvert, facet of identity, pastiche, postmodern

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the connection between dress codes and cultural identities? 2. How is the zeitgeist of the 1990s described in this passage? Do you agree with the given description? Why (not)?

III. Vocabulary drill. Student A go to page 6. Ask questions to hear definitions, synonyms and collocations for the missing words:

Student B crossword What is 2 across / 15 down? 1p 8a

a l 12s

r 2

3h

l u

r y e b

o b g c 16l

t 6 r

i u a

f i a l y

a 5z d 13

n

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h i t 10

15

e r i 4i

t

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o g 14

g

n e 11c l e a v a 17g e

i

a 20f

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18r

19

a

22d

7n o s t a l g i a

m

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x l 9

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III. Going to pubs – lifestyle or tribute to tradition? When considering what people wear, we need also to think about where they go,

as the two are usually connected. In 1994, 34 per cent of adults in Britain visited a pub at least once a week. However, for young people between the ages of 18 and 24, the figure was much higher at 64 per cent. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that UK pubs seem to be becoming more overtly geared towards a youth clientele. Nevertheless, pubs still have a unique status in British culture as places where people of different ages and, to a lesser extent, different classes, are likely to socialise. British soap operas such as Coronation Street and EastEnders have long played on the pub’s function as a place where many different types of people could plausibly meet. This, in turn, has lead to complaints from television monitoring groups that soap operas might encourage viewers to drink more alcohol, because are so often portrayed having a drink in the pub. Even though clubs and parties might well represent a central (and glamorous) social activity in the 1990s Britain, many young people on a “night out” will still often start a proceedings by visiting a pub. The more traditional activity of “pub crawls” - where many different pubs are visited in one evening – also persists in Britain that particularly among students and groups of “laddish” young men (such as the members of rugby team or a “stag” party). In the 1980s and 1990s traditional features of pubs such as bar billiards have often superseded by CD or video juke-boxes, and wide-screen televisions tuned to MTV or Sky Sport. And yet, whether or not loud music is played in pubs, most still retain the same function in this country. It could be argued that pubs are bound up with British ideas of “rites of passage”, insofar as a young person’s “first legal drink in a pub” is often treated as a landmark. Growing concern about under-aged drinking has meant that more attention is paid to young pub customers providing proof that they are over 18, and the major companies which run pubs have introduced their own ID cards. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that, since the late 1970s, increased emphasis has been put on eighteenth birthday celebrations rather than on twenty-first birthdays.

WORD STUDY I.Explain the meaning of the following words and expressions and translate them into Russian:

juke-box clientele tobe geared towards smth. to supersede pub crawl laddish young man

plausibly under-aged drinking rite of passage stag night overtly television monitoring groups

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COMREHENSION I. Answer the following questions: 1. Due to what have pubs gained their unique status in British culture? 2. What are popular soap operas sometimes blamed for? Is the criticism well-grounded? 3. Do pubs tend to keep up with the latest technology? 4. Pubs enjoy massive popularity with immigrants from Asia and the West Indies, don'tthey? 5. How would you explain the fact that since the late 1970s 18th birthday celebrations have become of considerably greater importance as compared to 21st birthdays?

FOLLOW-UP I. Look through the text and summarise the information about the British pubs. Prepare a speech (2-3 minutes) on their role in British youth culture.

IV. Clubbing - the other side of the legal? In the 1990s, it has been argued, clubs rather than pubs are the focus of many

young people’s social lives. The growth of the “rave” scene in Britain (which began with “Acid House” parties in the late 1980s) has meant that dancing had again become a central activity, as it was in the dance halls of the 1950s and early 1960s and the discos of 1970s. In contrast to these earlier dance scenes, however, alcohol has tended to be a peripheral element of UK dance culture in the 1990s. Instead, rave places much more emphasis on taking drugs such as “Ecstasy” (the effects of which tend to be cancelled out by alcohol). People dancing constantly for several hours are more likely to drink fluids to avoid dehydration and to restore energy levels, which no doubt accounts for the cultish popularity of the soft drink Lucozade in the rave scene. At the outset a key element in the appeal of raves was their illegality: events where thousands of people would come together were often publicised by enigmatic flyers, and by message transmitted on pirate radio stations such, as Kiss. The counter-cultural status of raves could be compared to “blues parties”, or “shebeens”, which became particularly popular in Afro-Caribbean communities in the 1980s. Like raves, these parties blurred the boundaries, between private gatherings and public events insofar as they tended to be held in “unofficial” or even squatted venues, with entrance by informally sold tickets or invitations. Like raves, blues parties were associated both with a specific type of music (reggae and ragga) played through enormous sound systems, and with drugs (cannabis) more than with alcohol - though cans of beer or other alcohol would usually be sold or included in the entrance price. Significantly, though, raves were one of the key targets of the Criminal Justice Act (1994), and this no doubt partly accounts for the decrease in their popularity now, their place arguably being taken by big (‘legitimate’) clubs such as Cream and The

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Ministry of Sound. More than anything, however, these shifts in the popularity of different venues reflect the fast-moving, changeable nature of British youth culture: new scenes of styles quickly transmute from “subculture” to “mainstream” trend, and with equal rapiditythey also fade from favour or disappear altogether. This ebb and flow in subcultural activity informs most young people’s cultural identities in one way or another, but this is by no means to suggest that everyone’s lives follow the same patterns.

WORD STUDY I. Explain the meaning of the following words and expressions and

translate them into Russian:

rave cultish flyer to transmute ebb and flow illegality peripheral squatted venue

rapidity legitimate counter – cultural cannabis to blur (the boundaries) key target to be cancelled out

COMPREHENSION I. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the characteristic features of the rave scene? 2. What is the reason for revival of dance scene back in the 90s? 3. Why could shebeens be compared to rave parties? What is the

difference between them? 4. How would you account for the cultish popularity of Lucuzade? 5. Why has rave literally died out by now?

FOLLOW-UP I. Share your own experience of clubbing? What do you enjoy/dislike most about it?

V. “Going Out on the Town” In large cities, especially northern ones such as Liverpool, Manchester or

Newcastle, there is a whole ritual which revolves around “going out on the town” on a Friday or Saturday night. Long queues from as hundreds of people gather around the pubs, clubs and wine bars –young women often dressed glamorously in thin-

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strapped or backless evening dresses , gauzy tunics or very short skirts, and young men in more casual (but nevertheless immaculate) shirts and trousers. In the context of “a night out on the town”, the mythical British predilection for queuing acquires another significance. The more popular clubs, for instance, sometimes hire “queue spotters” who look out for particularly stylishly dressed “punters” - the best dressed may well be allowed to go to the front of the queue, while those guilty of certain “fashion crimes” (for example, wearing white socks or the “wrong” kind of shoes) may not be allowed in at all. Like the cinema queues in the heyday of cinema-going, these queues of clubbers function as a kind of social scene, a place to meet your friends, to flirt or compete with your peers. Young people also might end their evening in another queue, waiting to buy chips or a kebab, or standing in line for a taxi. This kind of Friday or Saturday night spectacle is not often regarded as being part of any specific subculture (apart from what might be broadly described as “clubbing”), and yet it is still governed by a distinct set of codes - for example, in many cities, Friday night is girls’ and boys’ night out but Saturday night is for couple. One of the most striking aspects of these weekly events is the disregard most of the young people appear to have for the weather, the rule seems to be that jackets or coats are not worn even on freezing winter nights (this is also a question of money, as it is a luxury to buy an impressive coat or jacket which will only be “checked”, hung out of sight at the club). Perhaps most noticeable, though, is the act that men and women tend to go out not with boyfriends or girlfriends, but with their “mates” of the same sex. For women especially, this seems to be an important element in the way they choose to dress - the flamboyance overtly sexual nature of the outfits that many young women wear are apparently in some way legitimated by the fact that they are dressing up “for fun”, rather than explicitly to attract men. Indeed, it is often said that women on these occasions are “dressing up” for other women - that an integral part of the ritual is to be identified as part of a female subculture, and to gain the approval of other members of that social group. None of these so-called “rules” or codes of dress are clear-cut however.

WORD STUDY 1. Explain the meaning of the following words and expressions and translate

them into Russian:

clubber immaculate punters kebab

flamboyance predilection fashion crime clear-cut

gauzy queue spotters peer heyday

COMPREHENSION 1. Answer the following questions:

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a) What is the ritual of ‘going out on the town’ about? Do we have a similar custom in this country?

b) Why is it vital for many young people to be stylishly dressed when going out? c) Is one likely to get bored when in a queue of clubbers? d) What is the distinct set of codes associated with going out? e) How can the female subculture be characterised? f) Is going out for a night with mates of the same sex customary or viewed as

something out of the ordinary?