Text b. Clothing, Costume and Dress

The words “Clothing, costume and dress” indicate what people wear, along with related words like “apparel”, “attire”, “garments”, “wear”, “outfits” and “uniforms”, etc. They can be used as equivalents of the Russian “одежда” but all of them have some differences in usage. The words “clothing”, “costume” and “dress” are sometimes used interchangeably but the words differ in several ways.

Clothing as a noun refers to articles of dress that cover the body such as caftans, wrappers, sarongs, shirts, trousers, dresses, blouses and skirts as well as accessories for the head, hands and feet.

Costume describes garments of many types, particularly when worn as ensemble. It is also a woman’s suit or style of dress typical to certain periods, country, rank or profession. “Costume” frequently refers to the clothing items, accessories and makeup, for actors, dancers, and people dressing up for special events.

Dress is used in several ways: to indicate woman’s one-piece outer garment, to indicate a category of garments such as “holiday dress” or “military dress”. As a verb, “dress” indicates the process of using various items to cover, adorn and modify the body.

Attire is a formal dress, clothing, e.g. She was wearing a white attire. – Она была вся в белом.

Apparel is a literary or old use of clothes, especially of a fine or special sort. In American English apparel is synonymous to clothing.

Garment is an article of clothing.

Clothes are things to wear on the body, such as trousers, blouses, skirts, etc.

Outfit is a clothing needed for a particular purpose.

Uniform is a certain type of clothing which members of an organization or group wear, especially in the armed forces and school.

Wear is used in compound nouns or terms for things to wear: rainwear, underwear, men’s wear, etc.

Vocabulary

to adorn v	-	украшать
along with prep	-	наряду с
article of dress n	-	предмет одежды
frequently = often adv	-	часто
to indicate v	-	указывать
interchangeably adv	-	взаимозаменяемо
item n	-	изделие

Exercise 8. Read the text “Clothing, Costume and Dress” and translate in into Russian. Exercise 9. Fill in the blanks with the English equivalents of the Russian “платье”, “одежда”:

1. Policemen and postmen wear dark blue _____ in Britain.

2. Last Wednesday we listened to a very interesting lecture on Roman ____.

3. Museum collections have very few everyday _____ worn by working-class women.

4. You have to buy some new _____ for your new job.

5. They wore evening _____.

6. The girls were dressed in Greek and Egyptian _____.

7. Blue jeans originated as functional work _____ for miners and farmers.

8. The Russian _____ was richly decorated and showed differentiation between people of different social positions.

Exercise 10. Translate the sentences in both ways: from English into Russian and from Russian into English.

Nobody knows why primitive people chose to dress their bodies.	Никто не знает, почему первобытные люди стали покрывать одеждой и украшать свои тела.
Articles of dress that cover the body as well as accessories are called clothing.	Предметы одежды, которые надевают на тело, а также аксессуары, называют одеждой.
All the words denoting the Russian word “одежда” have some differences in usage.	Все слова, обозначающие русское слово “одежда», имеют некоторые отличия в применении.
Individuals wear costumes when they perform in dance, theatre, masquerade balls, etc. hiding their everyday appearance.	Люди носят костюмы, когда они участвуют в танцах, театральных постановках, бал-маскарадах и т.д., скрывая свой обычный внешний вид.

Exercise 11. Return to the text to make sure that you remember the terms given in the text. Add is/are where necessary.

attire	is/are	a literary or old use of clothes, especially of a fine or special sort. The term is widely used in modern American English;
costume		denotes articles of dress that cover the body;
outfit		a formal dress, clothing
clothing		a noun describes garments of many types particularly when worn as an ensemble;
apparel		a clothing needed for a particular purpose
clothes		things to wear on the body, such as blouses, skirts, shirts, etc.

Exercise 12. Письменно переведите отрывок текста.