B2 COURSE

Unit 50 - Clothes & Appearance

Appearance Vocabulary

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 B2 COURSE
Unit 50 - Clothes & Appearance

Clothes Vocabulary

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 B2 COURSE
Unit 50 - Clothes & Appearance

VIDEO - Vocabulary APPEARANCE

VIDEO - Vocabulary CLOTHES and FASHION

Read the following interview to learn more vocabulary related to clothes and fashion!

What do you wear?

One of the things that has stood out in France is how there generally seems to be one line of fashion
and people follow it. There are, of course, the different groups – you will get goths (in black), for
example – but the locals here have also asked me if I’ve noticed this trend, a trend seemingly of
following the fashion that high street shops present. I’ve frequently come across young people in heels,
wearing a lot of make-up and with carefully combed hair, even when they’re not even going anywhere
special. Maybe there is one image that lots of people are aiming for.

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Unit 50 - Clothes & Appearance

Do you think about fashion?

Perhaps it is just from my experience, but in England young people can wear anything and everything
these days. There are many fashions to be followed, including the one of the high street shops, but
following no particular fashion at all is also ok. In Falmouth, home town of an arts university in the
south of England, the streets are full of students wearing clothes they’ve bought from vintage
markets, from charity shops, from high street shops, or which they’ve found in their parents’
wardrobe. Anything goes. Another stereotype, but still true, in places like Cambridge and Durham you
will find students in gilets, and shirts crested with the Jack Wills logo. In London no second person will
look the same. For the young people of Britain any hair colour, style and shape has the potential to be
liked. You can wear what you want – even if you don’t wear it with high street style. Your style is your
choice.

Do you make your own clothes?

Two of the ladies I have lived with have been helping me learn to knit. The first one is a knitting-
machine! She learnt to knit because she and her siblings had to knit socks and gloves during the war, or
they would have been very cold. Making quilts, knitting accessories and editing clothing has even
become more popular among young people in England today.

As I worked at a charity shop this morning and bought myself two items of clothing for 3 euros in total,
I wondered why young people don’t seem to dress themselves more from such shops. One student at
school here said to me that she thought it was a shame – she’d noticed that being able to wear
whatever you want allows you to express your personality through your clothes. I wonder how ideas
of fashion will continue to develop here.