Being in the fashion industry requires constant learning, informing, following trends, and staying relevant. Fashion education requires you to have a strong base of facts about fashion history, as well as modern-day trends. Acquiring this education should come from various sources. Reading, networking, and watching global fashion content are just some of the primary strategies. And in this process, you’ll be strengthening your language skills.
How is fashion education related to language learning? This article breaks down the different ways in which your fashion instruction will strengthen your language skills.
Guest post by Ewan Jennings
Expanding Your Vocabulary
Any type of learning contributes to expanding your vocabulary, but in fashion, this is extremely the case. So many fashion terms come from different dominant fashion languages, including French, Italian, or Spanish.
As you learn about different areas of fashion, materials, textures, pieces of clothing, patterns, or even influencer marketing, your vocabulary keeps growing. So many of these new words are borrowed from the languages of their country of origin. Couture, chiffon, tulle, prêt-à-porter, and similar words open the door to language acquisition and help your brain get better at speaking it.
Exploring Different Cultures
Languages go hand to hand with the culture of the people who speak it. Fashion and culture are also very closely related, as many fashion designers find their inspiration in the root of their culture. This is why fashion education guides you thru the exploration of:
- Tradition,
- Religion,
- Fashion History,
- Colors,
- Geographical location,
- And weather.
As you get to know a culture, you’ll naturally come in touch with its language. Understanding and empathizing with the members of a culture will also help you speak their language better.
Networking
Fashion is created by people, and those people are scattered all over the globe. If you’re lucky, you’ll find fashion events, seminars, or workshops somewhere near your location. If not, you have social media and various online platforms that can help you connect to those people.
But, whether you’re doing it in-person or online, networking requires:
- Great communication skills,
- Openness,
- Participation in various activities,
- Receiving and giving feedback.
And often, you’ll be establishing communication with people who don’t speak your language natively. Imagine how much it would help if you knew their language, at least to some extent. You’d leave a great first impression, have them remember you, and maintain a steady relationship easier.
This means that fashion education forces you to expand your language knowledge and use it actively. Naturally, for official business correspondence, you can use the best certified translation services. But for informal conversations, your language skills should take the lead.
Extensive Reading
To stay relevant, informed, and knowledgeable, you constantly need to read about the latest in fashion. You need to learn about the new fashion trends, designers, models, brands, styles, retailers, and so much more.
But sticking to news from your country only will take you nowhere. After all, aren’t France and Italy major fashion centers? Isn’t Japan showing huge potential with innovative designers and fashion experiments? According to a 2020 study by Statista, the Italian and Parisian Vogue were the highest-ranking magazines globally. They reached 113,4 and 80,7 points as opposed to Vogue USA, which only had 66.
This means you should expand your reading materials and follow what’s published in magazines, on websites, and on fashion blogs all over the globe. As you do so, you’ll face language challenges, but it could inspire you to work on your language skills. You could:
- Translate the texts you like,
- Keep a vocabulary journal with all the new words you find,
- Learn a bit about grammar and syntax.
This type of language exposure is invaluable and will help you gradually build your language competence. Before you know it, you’ll be reading without trouble or even writing something on your own. GrabMyEssay can help you with writing at first. Then, you’ll be more confident doing it by yourself.
Final Thoughts
Fashion lovers enjoy every step of their education and love spending time gaining new knowledge and insight. It’s only a bonus that in this process, you get to sharpen your language skills, almost unknowingly. Exposure to foreign cultures, study materials, resources, and people is a huge help in boosting language skills.
So, be more active in improving your language skills through fashion and enjoy your professional and social improvement.
Author’s Bio
Ewan Jennings is a linguist and a blogger. He writes about the advantages of speaking more than one language and different engaging ways to boost your language skills.
Publisher’s Remarks
Fashion education also includes to understand terms like what are regenerated fibers or like what stands behind vegan fashion. This knowledge helps you to buy what you really want rather than buying what you think it is.
Featured photo: Melody Jacob Pexels
© 2013-2023 Nicole Mölders | All rights reserved
GREAT ARTICLE! I LEARNED A LOT HAVING A FEW FASHION-ORIENTED BLOGGERS TO LEARN FROM. I BECAME A “FASHION POET” FOR A WHILE. MY INTEREST HAS ABATED NOW, SO AM LESS ACTIVE IN THE FIELD.
Well said! Fashion is a form of visual communication but it can aloso improve our language skills.