Yesterday, one of our Twitter followers let us know “‘Mansformation‘ is the worst made up word in the history of made up fashion words…” which got our pun-loving minds thinking about how many made-up words entered the lexicon this year. Some were bad, some were fugly, but most were funny — which we appreciated this year more than most. So, in homage, we celebrate the made-up fashion words and terms that made us cringe and giggle all at the same time. Which made-up fashion slang have you found yourself repeating/blogging/forwarding on to a friend?
1. Smize (or is it “Sm-eyes”?) Gotta love Tyra. Not only does Tyra have 275 different smiles in her camera-ready arsenal, but she’s made up a term for the smile that has less to do with your mouth and everything to do with your eyes: The Smize. She even got CNN’s poker-faced profiler Larry King to demonstrate.
2. Jeggings. “Have Leggings Killed the Skinny Jean?” Nope. They’ve created the “jegging” and we say “right on!” With jeans getting more and more anorexic and stretch fabrics only stretching so far, it was a designer no-brainer to create denim leggings.
3. Meggings. Men, it turns out, want to get their skinny on too. In ’09, our divos not only slipped on their share of crotch-hugging jeans, but they also pulled on leggings. Mixed reviews (and men’s fashion shows) considered, we have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of the megging in 2010. Ready?
4. Heavage. It was a big year for made-up fashion words regarding men as the boys got their divo on. In addition to donning “meggings” and “manties” (man panties), “heavage” (he + cleavage) has entered the lexicon thanks to the bevy of dudes baring their pecks in deep v-neck tees and sweaters. We no likey.
5. Mansformation. Another one for the boys, the term “mansformation” was born out of our desire to stylishly upgrade the fashion-challenged dudes. It’s not about literally transforming our Dad/husband/brother/boy toy into someone he’s not — if he’s not into meggings or showing heavage, so be it — it’s about jazzing his look up i.e. tailored instead of bulky and hanging.
6. Modelinia. What? You’ve never been to Modelinia? It’s a tiny island off the coast of Estonia/Brasil/Germany/Dominican Republic/Missouri/Bryant Park… where modeling agents and the peeps at Confessions of a Casting Director go scouting for “Modelinians” a.k.a. the next new 5’9″-6″ tall, 15-20 year old face website that bills itself as the “guide to supermodel beauty and style”.
7. Twi-hard / Twi-Style. With parents from Ghana, this term first made me think of the language Twi spoken by the Akan people. Post-Twilight, “Twi” has become a prefix for any cultural phenomena that reference the films/book series. There is a Twilight look that is either about wearing merchandise from the film, or copping the style of the films’ leads Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.
8. Gee-yonce. It’s been less than a month since Lady Gaga actually appeared in Beyonce’s “Video Phone” clip sans mask and blood, but at post time there were 6,120 Google search results of the term “gee-yonce”. Make this instance 6,121. In reference to Gaga’s Sasha Fierc-ified look in the music video, Gaga was supposedly called “Gee-yonce” on the set of the shoot.
9. Fashion Monster. Speaking of Lady Gaga, her self-described “freaky” persona gave birth to the term “Fashion Monster” and probably the name of her new album The Fame Monster.
10. Recessionista. We love that the worst of times has yielded the best of sales — and a new fashion superhero: The Recessionista. Soaring over one of the worst economic recessions in history, this caped fashion crusader has consistently kept it fly by shopping her closet and hopping on hook-ups. That said, we do empathize with our dear twitter follower a little bit. Not only because it’s been overused, but because we’re hoping the end of ’09 will mark the end of the Recession. We were always partial to the mother of all made-up fashion words: Fashionista.
More…
>Win a $2500 Bluefly splurge to “mansform” your man
>We’ve got jeggings–& they’re on sale!
>Are you a “Casualista”?