英语单词大师：Voguespeak

 AP: I'm Adam Phillips for Wordmaster, sitting in for Roseanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. Today, we take a look at some of the specialized¹ words found in the world of fashion.

(MUSIC: "I'm Too Sexy for My Shirt"/Right Said Fred)AP: New York City enjoys pride of place as one of the world's top fashion centers. That's where you'll find Valerie Steele, who directs the Museum of the Fashion institute of Technology, or FIT ["F-I-T"], where many of tomorrow's fashion designers, marketing² executives and others train for careers in the six-hundred-eighty-billion-dollar-a-year fashion industry.

VALERIE STEELE: "The fashion world is the industry for me. It's definitely its own world. It has its own discourse³. You could call it voguespeak, I guess. Vogue⁴ being, of course, the number one fashion magazine internationally.

AP: Indeed, Vogue is the premier⁵ go-to place for both industry professionals and the public to see a designer's line, a word that FIT assistant curator Fred Dennis says means about the same thing as a designer's collection:

FRED DENNIS: "A collection is what a designer will produce [in] any given season. It can be anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred pieces depending on the designer. Pieces are looks. A look is a total head-to-toe ensemble⁶. So you can start with a hat perhaps, a top, shoes."AP: "Ensemble" is one of dozens of French words used every day in the world of haute couture, a phrase that translates literally⁷ as high culture but which also connotes the glamorous⁸, expensive side of fashion -- or, as they say, la mode. Again, Valerie Steele.

VALERIE STEELE: "So you talk about decolletage [day-coe-la-TAHGE] for example, which is the noun referring to a neckline of say a dress, usually a low neckline, as in a plunging⁹ decolletage."AP: The fashion world sometimes pokes¹⁰ fun at itself with terms like fashionista, meaning an almost obsessively¹¹ knowledgeable¹² expert on what's hot -- meaning in, or in fashion - and what's not. FIT's Tamsen Schwartzman contrasts fashionista with fashion victim.

TAMSEN SCHWARTZSMAN: "One who falls prey¹³ to the latest trends and fads¹⁵. They'll go out and buy something that lasts as a fad¹⁴ for only a couple of months. Fashion victims can also be the people who are cutting edge -- bringing some trend into the market."AP: "So I presume that the fashion industry likes these kind of 'victims.'"TAMSEN SCHWARTZSMAN: "Of course! They shop. They promote things that other people then catch on to, and buy."AP: Indeed, the business of fashion is all about desire, and so many fashion words convey judgments¹⁶ about what is attractive -- and what isn't. Many terms of fashion praise, such as dope, sharp and phat (it's spelled P-H-A-T) are borrowed from popular music and the hip¹⁷-hop scene.

And, according to Emily Berry at Parsons The New School for Design, another New York fashion school, just what will be considered phat in two seasons can be seen right now on what insiders call the catwalk.

EMILY BERRY: "Which is a colloquial¹⁸ word for 'runway.' It's usually a stage from where models will walk down to display the fashions of the line and they walk in a very straight line much like a cat would, one foot in front of the other. And the term catwalk was also made popular by the song: 'I'm too sexy, on the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah.'"(STUDENTS SINGING)AP: All the young women in Emily's class know that song, just as all agree with classmate Stella Kim, who says that some clothes, such as the mom pant, can never be sexy.

STELLA KIM: "And it refers any pant that seems excessively high on the waist and in the back, which tends to accentuate¹⁹ the gluteus maximus [buttocks] and also the front, also known as the mom pooch [the stomach area]."AP: "So it's not necessarily a complimentary²⁰ term."STELLA KIM: "Not necessarily, no."AP: Nor, adds Emily Berry, is the term muffin top.

EMILY BERRY: "It's when you have a lot of women who are wearing pants or skirts that are too tight for them, so all of the fat that would normally reside in their pants has bubbled over the top. The love handles just sort of explode above the hip line."AP: Many fashion phrases can be either positive or negative, depending on the context. Fashion Institute of Technology curator Molly Sorkin cites the phrase over the top as another example.

MOLLY SORKIN: "'Over the top' is used to mean that something is just kind of beyond and too much. And it can refer to excess in good ways and bad ways. So you can have some amazing couture dress that is over the top, or somebody can be over the top because it's a little crazy."AP: It all depends on the zeitgeist, adds Sorkin.

MOLLY SORKIN: "It's kind of what is in the air and what is now, and what is happening. That's kind of tricky²¹ because once something is now, it's also kind of over."AP: For many, the fleeting²² nature of fashion trends may be part of their charm. Today, pink handbags, for example, might be chic²³ -- the word means fashionable -- but tomorrow, they'll be so yesterday.

However, one thing does remain constant: as long as people wear clothes and want to be admired for them, there will be fashion, and people will talk. For Wordmaster, I'm Adam Phillips reporting from New York.

 

1 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

2 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

3 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

4 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

5 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

6 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

9 plunging   

adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发，生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 pokes   

v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• He pokes his nose into everything. 他这人好管闲事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Only the tip of an iceberg pokes up above water. 只有冰山的尖端突出于水面。 来自辞典例句

11 obsessively   

ad.着迷般地，过分地

参考例句：

• Peter was obsessively jealous and his behaviour was driving his wife away. 彼得过分嫉妒的举止令他的妻子想离他而去。
• He's rude to his friends and obsessively jealous. 他对他的朋友很无礼而且嫉妒心重。

12 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

13 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

14 fad   

n.时尚；一时流行的狂热；一时的爱好

参考例句：

• His interest in photography is only a passing fad.他对摄影的兴趣只是一时的爱好罢了。
• A hot business opportunity is based on a long-term trend not a short-lived fad.一个热门的商机指的是长期的趋势而非一时的流行。

15 fads   

n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It was one of the many fads that sweep through mathematics regularly. 它是常见的贯穿在数学中的许多流行一时的风尚之一。 来自辞典例句
• Lady Busshe is nothing without her flights, fads, and fancies. 除浮躁、时髦和幻想外，巴歇夫人一无所有。 来自辞典例句

16 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

17 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

18 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

19 accentuate   

v.着重，强调

参考例句：

• She has beautiful eyes, so we should accentuate them in the makeup.她眼睛很美丽，我们在化妆时应该突出她的眼睛。
• Mrs Obamas speeches rarely accentuate the positive.奥巴马夫人的演讲很少强调美国积极的一面。

20 complimentary   

adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的

参考例句：

• She made some highly complimentary remarks about their school.她对他们的学校给予高度的评价。
• The supermarket operates a complimentary shuttle service.这家超市提供免费购物班车。

21 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

22 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。

23 chic   

n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的

参考例句：

• She bought a chic little hat.她买了一顶别致的小帽子。
• The chic restaurant is patronized by many celebrities.这家时髦的饭店常有名人光顾。