Names and Terms Used in the Fashion World

Abstract

The many types of textiles alone available on the market overwhelm the modern-day shopper. Names like Dacron, Orlon, Lastex, Spandex, and Dynel, virtually unknown ten or fifteen years ago, are heard constantly today as a result of an enormous amount of research and development on the part of many chemical companies that are vying with one another to develop fabrics with qualities better than cotton and wool. This experimentation has put today's shopper in a position to choose the particular quality or combination of qualities he or she desires in a fabric-drip-dry, crease-resistant, or nonshrinking. The following names and terms pertaining to the fashion world, none of which appears in recent dictionaries, have been gathered from magazines, newspapers, and occasional advertising material. It seems fairly obvious that many of these terms are trademarks, and those which are known to be are so designated. The fact that a term is not marked does not mean, however, that it is not a trademark, merely that trademark status could not be validated. For help in identifying many of these terms as trademarks, grateful acknowledgment is made to Dorothy Fey of the United States Trademark Association, New York City. The inclusion of an item in this list does not express the author's opinion concerning proprietary rights. Nor is a definition in this list to be considered as affecting any trademark's validity. Among the methods of creation, the process of simple juxtaposition, that is, compounding, accounts for the formation of more names and terms in the world of fashion than does any other. In the following list of 371, 134 (36.1