Terminology Resource Description

Covers fashionable and unfashionable dress within the orbit of European style.

The principle followed is that a basic generic term should be the first catalogue name for each garment or accessory. This is followed by a second term, identifying the type more precisely within the main form, and, if necessary and known, a third term identifying a variant of the second may follow. Short lived contemporary terms or regional terms, known to have been used for the garment described, appear as second, third or fourth terms within brackets, inverted commas or other convention. The use of the most general, all-embracing term as the main entry makes it more likely that a recorder who is not a specialist will achieve an accurate first grouping of garments, and that a specialist does not create confusion through excess of knowledge.