21 March 2022
A little-known language called
“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”
– Karl Lagerfeld
This quote by Chanel’s late Head Designer and Creative Director got us thinking about fashion’s impact on language, and the challenges involved when communicating fashion across borders. Fashion has often been compared to a language, with its own version of ‘grammatical rules.’ In fashion, that is what is and isn’t deemed acceptable.
Different cultures have their own nuances, colloquialisms and specific rules for their spoken language. They also have their own ways of constructing outfits to communicate their beliefs, customs and history. So how does a luxury fashion brand promote or convey a particular message about a product to a global audience consisting of different cultures?
And what role does language play in all of this? It is clear that a brand must first invest in cultural awareness, then translation…
Luxury fashion labels have found they can no longer solely rely on a visual to effectively deliver a message. Luxury consumers have high expectations: they look for uniqueness, meaning, and above all, a luxurious-experience. While an image may grab the audience’s attention and exude a particular mood, there’s no substitute for the written (or spoken) word when there’s a need to convey clear, unambiguous information.
But what good is a word if it gets lost in translation? To have a meaningful, luxurious experience, the buyer has to engage with the brand and fully appreciate all of its unique qualities. The message needs to resonate with them.
In a recent survey, 72.4% of consumers said that they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language. That’s why fashion companies should consider all variations of content: product descriptions, web copy, social media content (hashtags), email campaigns and search engine optimization, when devising a localisation strategy.
In fact, 56.2% of consumers said that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price. Which means it is possible to put a price on translation.
Welt, slip, patch, slant, chest, pencil, zip, internal, central, pouch, square… Do you know what all these words have in common? The answer: they can all be used combined with the word “pocket” (e.g: welt pocket, slip pocket, patch pocket). With so much terminology for one tiny part of a piece of clothing, imagine how many terms exist in the fashion universe.
Fashion translation is not a game for amateurs. Describing fashion products requires a lot of knowledge: applique, gaiter, filigree and iridescent may well be familiar words thrown around the fashion scene, but they are not used on a daily basis outside that sphere.
Fashion has its own vocabulary, used by followers and influencers to articulate the detail of garments or trends. In fact, Vogue.com has an entire page dedicated to its fashion glossary. Constantly evolving, fashion is now faster-paced than ever. Luxury brands have entered uber-fast territory by moving their new lines from catwalk to stores almost instantaneously. All of this has had a collateral effect on fashion terminology, which is constantly evolving.
In addition to trending terms, translators have to be aware that the main purpose of fashion translation is to give an attractive and desirable vision to the customer. Combining descriptive language with persuasive skills requires the translator or copywriter to be very familiar and confident with the fashion universe.
Adapting and transcreating is a key requirement for fashion translators. Have you ever tried to sell winter coats in the tropical summer? Thanks to globalization, that may happen. If a fashion company in the UK is trying to expand their market to areas such as South America, the translation needs to be adapted to better suit the new target audience.
Let’s look at a global brand that needs to advertise winter coats while it is summer in Brazil. To appeal to this audience, they will need to adapt their translation. They could include the concept of “travelling abroad” or “experiencing a European winter” in order to make these clothes desirable. Depending on the audience, winter garments can be given a different connotation, such as in the different market. They might be described as elegant instead of warm. In addition, a skilled fashion translator should opt for terminology that is on-trend, and relevant. Looking to vocabulary used in local fashion magazines is a huge help in this, in order to make sure the consumer receives a piece of text that is in keeping with what they would expect to read at home.
One of the main challenges any translator faces is ensuring that the target message is as faithful to the source as possible. Often, the connotations of a phrase in one language bear no resemblance to the meaning in another. Straplines and slogans are particularly likely to translate badly, or nonsensically. But there are also other considerations. The syntax of one language is likely to differ from another, and to ensure that the translation sounds authentic and as if it had been written in its target language, some skill is needed.
Copywriting for creative sectors, such as fashion, design, or even the music industry, produces numerous constraints which must be addressed. Finding the right balance between accuracy and command of up-to-date concepts and jargon is no mean feat.
When translating from English to French, for example, the use of Anglicisms is often favoured, especially when referring to the latest trends. Often the international diffusion of terms in fashion means that terms will stay in the English language: “it-bag”, “oversize”, “fashion”, “casual”, and”vintage” are widely used by French fashion professionals and journalists; but these words should be used with discretion, especially when the equivalent word exists in the target language. For instance, the French phrases “sac incontournable” or “sac du moment” achieve the notion of an it-bag in a quite satisfactory way, and should be favoured, unless the tone of voice is deliberately fashionista-ish.
There are many English terms have been imported from French, but their meaning may have evolved slightly across the decades. For instance, epaulette is a French-derived word; however this false friend shouldn’t be translated as “épaulette” (meaning shoulder-pad). Instead the correct translation would be “patte d’épaule”. An adept fashion translator will be highly experienced at identifying and avoiding these pitfalls.
Language is an ever-evolving force, and the language of fashion changes as constantly as the trend of the moment. As language moves on, translators will have to keep on their toes. Thinking creatively and culturally will be the only way for the localization industry to stay ahead in what is a fast-paced, exhilarating sector.
