GLOSSARY

COMPETENCY:

2.00

Explain the evolution and movement of fashion.

OBJECTIVE:

2.02

Summarize the movement and acceptance of fashion.

Basics/staples: Items that are in constant demand and should always be kept in stock
throughout a season or year.
Classic: A style or design that continues to be popular over an extended period of time,
even though fashion changes; a style that remains in fashion year after year.
Decline: The fourth stage in the fashion cycle when the market is saturated and
popularity decreases.
Fad: A temporary, passing fashion that has great appeal to many people for a short
period of time; a style that gains and loses popularity quickly.
Fashion: Styles that are accepted and used by a particular group of people at a given
time.
Fashion cycle: The ongoing introduction, rise, peak, decline, and obsolescence in
popularity of specific styles or shapes.
Fashion followers: Those who accept and wear a fashion only after it becomes
acceptable to the majority.
Fashion leaders: Trendsetters who have the credibility and confidence to wear new
fashions and influence the acceptance of new trends.
Fashion movement: Ongoing change in what is considered fashionable.
Flop: A fashion that is introduced and expected to sell but that is not accepted by
consumers.
Introduction: The first stage of the fashion cycle when new styles, colors, textures,
and fabrics are introduced.
Knockoff: A design copied from a more expensive garment.
Long-run fashions: Styles that take a long time to complete the fashion cycle.
Obsolescence: The fifth stage of the fashion cycle when the style is rejected, is
undesirable at any price, is no longer worn, and is no longer produced.
Fashion Merchandising
B-16

Peak: The third stage of the fashion cycle during which a style is at its height of
popularity.
Recurring fashions: Styles which have been in fashion at one time, gone out of
fashion, and come back in fashion again.
Rise: The second stage of the fashion cycle when consumer interest grows and the
fashion becomes more readily accepted by consumers.
Short-run fashions: Styles that are popular for a brief period of time.
Trickle-across theory (Horizontal flow theory): The assumption that fashion moves
horizontally through groups at similar social levels from fashion leaders to
followers.
Trickle-down theory (Downward flow theory): The assumption that fashion trends
start among the upper-class or fashion leaders and move down to the masses or
fashion followers.
Trickle-up theory (Upward flow theory): The assumption that fashion trends start
among the young or lower income groups and move upward to older or higher
income groups.

Fashion Merchandising
B-17