Fashion A-Z

From applique to zippers, a comprehensive dictionary with definitions and
meanings of key fashion vocabulary, written by Camilla Morton.

Power Dressing

Power dressing was a phrase originally coined in 1970s America and by the 1980s, everyone was wearing this smart style of dress. Tailored jackets, shoulder pads, dresses whipped in at the waist and a skirt that stopped on the knee. Think Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, aspiring to be Coco Chanel.

Princess Line

Princess Line is not so much a ‘Once Upon a Time,’ but the feminine silhouette of a woman’s fitted dress popularly associated with Charles Frederick Worth who introduced the silhouette in 1870s. He named it after the elegant Princess Alexandra of Denmark. A princess line is cut in long panels, without a horizontal joining seam or any separation at the waist. Instead, it uses darts and long seams to shape the body. In 1951 Christian Dior presented a collection, called the Line Longue, based on the princess-line.