LONDON FASHION

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  In the "swinging sixties", a little London street near Piccadilly Circus suddenly became the world's most famous street for youth fashions. Carnaby Street was where the stars of the sixties, from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix, bought their amazing clothes. Until then, "fashion"; styles came from Paris or Milan, not from old London! Since then much has changed, and today London is one of the most creative cities in the world. Though Chelsea and the King's Road, Carnaby Street and Camden are the most famous names, other parts of London have become centres of style too; pop style, punk style, neo-punk, post-punk, grunge, disco, techno and more.... there are streets for each. Today, London's famous "Fashion Week" has become the biggest fashion event in the world.
     While many of the world's top fashion designers now work in London, some of London's top designers, such as John Galliano, are now in charge of major collections in Paris and New York.  Vivienne Westwood, who looked at London's punk styles and redesigned them for the international "off-the-peg" market, was perhaps the most significant fashion designer of the past 50 years. Meanwhile Stella McCartney, the daughter of Paul McCartney, is the world's leading designer of eco-friendly fashion.... one of those who has understood that there are some serious downsides to the fashion industry too.
   New generations of designers keep coming on too. London's "University of the Arts" is the largest university of the arts in Europe; its London College of Fashion and Central St. Martin's college are two of the world's most prestigious and dynamic colleges of fashion and design.   
    Once, "London fashion" meant  men in suits, bowler hats, and rolled umbrellas; yet times have changed, and although the "suit and tie" is still a common uniform for men working in city offices, even that is changing. Indeed many firms in London now have a "mufti day" once a week, or once a month, when employees can wear what they like - jeans and trainers or whatever - instead of their traditional suits.
    According to the latest surveys, traditional suits are now disappearing fast, and "dress as you want"  is becoming the rule. However top businessmen and civil servants will continue dressing in suits for years to come - if not for ever - while on the streets, London fashions keep changing fast.... and first. That, of course, is what fashion is all about.

There's fashion... and style

Although British fashion designers have been particularly successful in the last thirty years, English fashion and London styles have been famous for much longer than that.
  Two hundred years ago, English fashions were admired and copied all over Europe and North America!  Fashion however was rather different in those days, as it was only for aristocrats and other wealthy people, not for ordinary people. All clothes were made by hand, or "made to measure", and there was no such thing as "off-the-peg" fashion. In England, the most fashionable tailors worked in a London street called Savile Row, and the tailors of Savile Row have long been reputed among the best in the world.
  Even today Savile Row tailors enjoy a reputation second to none, and some of them regularly travel the world, making the best suits for important businessmen, royalty, millionnaires, celebrities, diplomats and politicians in many countries. For those who cannot afford a Savile Row tailor, shops and brands like Burberry take their timeless British styles and classic designs to cities all over the world. But is this "classic chic" the same as "fashion"? Some people would perhaps say "no".

Linguapress has more intermediate resources on clothes and fashion. See:

•  Discussion. Are you a brand slave?
•  Fashion history: The story of Blue Jeans.
•  Interactive crossword: Clothes crossword.

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WORD GUIDE

event: occasion, show - in charge of: responsible for -  off the peg: instantly available in a shop, ready to wear -  keep: continue - prestigious: respected, important - suit: matching jacket and trousers - bowler hat : a round hard black hat - mufti: civilian clothes, whatever you want to wear - survey: study - civil servant: government employee - tailor: person who makes clothes - enjoy: benefit from - brand: make, commercial name, label

Worksheet

Interactive multiple choice exercise

Conjunctions, connectors and other key words.
Choose the correct option for each of the eighteen drop-down boxes below.
Most of the options concern connecting words, which relate one part of a document to another. Connectors are very important words, as they determine the relation between different clauses... addition, contrast, confirmation, an example, and so on.

For teachers:

Grammar point: conjunctions, connectors. This text is rich in conjunctions and other connectors. As well as simple coordinating conjunctions and but, as and yet, and subordinating conjunctions such as although and though, while, and when, there are conjunctive adverbs like however, meanwhile or indeed. Make sure that students understand their meanings and use.
   The multiple-choice exercise has been carefully thought through so that in each box where conjunctions or connectors are listed, only one is correct. Obviously, other choices will be gramatically correct, for instance the first sentence would remain gramatically correct whether the student chose as, because, while or until (though a bit strange with until); but if the wrong choice is selected, then the meaning of the sentence changes, as the subordinate clause no longer relates to the main clause in the same way.

  Note how conjunctive adverbs, like however, can be moved around in a clause, whereas conjunctions must stand at the start of the clause.
For a full explanation of conjunctions and connectors, with lots of clear examples, see A Descriptive Grammar of English, section 3.3.

Vocabulary:  You might like to ask students to pick out all the vocabulary relating to fashion and clothing that appears in this text. Note the useful expression "off-the-peg"... and its antonym, which is also in the text.  Brainstorm with students for more clothes and fashion vocabulary. For a vocabulary game, see the intermediate interactive clothes crossword.

Discussion.  The fashion industry has come in for a lot of criticism in the past few years, not just for the working conditions that exist in many "sweat shop" factories in developing countries, but also for its staggering - yet little reported - environmental impact. According to the BBC and other reliable resources, the worldwide fashion industry generates about 8-10% of global CO2 emissions, and nearly 20% of wastewater. According to the United Nations, the manufacturing of a single pair of jeans requires between 7.5 and 10 tonnes of water, mostly of it used in the watering of the fields in which the cotton is produced

Other ideas?
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