Glossary
Fashion Designer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential fashion designer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key fashion designer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in fashion designer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Collection
- A group of designs.
- Colorway
- A color variation of a design.
- Drape
- How fabric hangs.
- Fashion week
- Events where collections are shown.
- Fit session
- Reviewing sample fit on a model.
- Grading
- Scaling patterns to sizes.
- Line sheet
- A catalog of a collection.
- Mood board
- Inspiration collage.
- Pattern
- A template for cutting fabric.
- PLM
- Product lifecycle management.
- Sample
- A prototype garment.
- Silhouette
- A garment’s overall shape.
- Sourcing
- Finding materials and factories.
- Tech pack
- A document with specs for production.
- Trim
- Buttons, zippers and details.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Fashion Designer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Fashion Designer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.