Visual Guide to Women's Fashions and Hairstyles

[Activities]

Often I want to describe a female character's hair or clothes but I don't know what words to use.

Does anyone know of a comprehensive visual guide to women's fashions and/or hair? Either in book or website form would be OK. I've looked around on the internet but haven't found quite what I wanted.

 

[lovecraft68]

Often I want to describe a female character's hair or clothes but I don't know what words to use.

Does anyone know of a comprehensive visual guide to women's fashions and/or hair? Either in book or website form would be OK. I've looked around on the internet but haven't found quite what I wanted.

You can do what I've done in the past and google things like "new hairstyles" or "sexy dresses" and check out the images and do your best to describe them.

 

[oggbashan]

Often I want to describe a female character's hair or clothes but I don't know what words to use.

Does anyone know of a comprehensive visual guide to women's fashions and/or hair? Either in book or website form would be OK. I've looked around on the internet but haven't found quite what I wanted.

Fashions? A recent mail order catalogue but the same clothes in a thrift shop would not have the same appeal. Some of the catalogue descriptions use words in unfamiliar ways e.g. a strappy top = two very thin strings that are no support at all; a flirty skirt = flared lightweight material that would be embarrassing in any wind.

 

[Handley_Page]

Often I want to describe a female character's hair or clothes but I don't know what words to use.

Does anyone know of a comprehensive visual guide to women's fashions and/or hair? Either in book or website form would be OK. I've looked around on the internet but haven't found quite what I wanted.

I suggest you contact your nearest College or school that teaches design, and talk to the librarian.

 

[Aynmair]

Often I want to describe a female character's hair or clothes but I don't know what words to use.

Does anyone know of a comprehensive visual guide to women's fashions and/or hair? Either in book or website form would be OK. I've looked around on the internet but haven't found quite what I wanted.

You haven't said whether you care about contemporary or historical fashions. For contemporary stuff, look up women's magazines. For historical, libraries or Goigle are a treasure trove. But I bet there's no single magic tome - unless you consider Google one.

 

[sr71plt]

It's unbelievable what you can track down just by being savvy with Google search (which often means to do a lot of searching with different keywords). For historical costumes, I have books that help me at least find words for items of apparel for googling keywords. One such book is Douglas Gorsline's What People Wore: A Visual History of Dress from Ancient Times to 20th-Century America. Anything contemporary, though, is abundantly available to you through Internet searching.

 

[3113]

Complicated question

Wiki has a lot of good links here.

The thing with clothing is that you're not going to find it all in one place, at least online. There are whole books of Victorian clothing. So, you really have to look up things like "Skirts" to get terms for different style skirts, and "Ties" to get the right words for different styles of ties and how to tie them. Along with what era you're after.

Here's a good list of hair terms, but, once again, you need to be more specific. Where? When? Who? Men/women? 80's hair? Hairstyles for African Americans?

And what about men? Hairstyles can include mustaches and beards. They also get their own glossaries. As do shoes. So, I'm afraid it's not so easy. Best advice, try to keep your clothing/hair descriptions general. DO use a specific term or two to get the idea across, as what your character wears tells us a lot about them. But only the key details. Like "She wore a leather pencil skirt..." that tells us all, and we don't need to know a whole lot more. Another example: we probably don't need to know what kind of shorts and cropped top a woman is wearing if you tell us she's got on gladiator sandals up to the knee. We readers can imagine our own shorts and cropped top if you give us those sandals. This saves you from having to look up a lot of terms, yet gives the reader the image you want them to have of this character. The character's "message" as it were.

 

[StrangeLife]

Best advice, try to keep your clothing/hair descriptions general...

Good idea

"She was still wearing clothes. Not good. With a mighty jerk I ripped them off and threw myself at her now naked body.... "

 

[sr71plt]

Good idea

I agree. My first thought to the request was to say just that. The worst contribution of Chic Lit. to the world of literature was a paragraph on what Tiffany was wearing as she adjusted how her hair fell in front of the foyer mirror before going grocery shopping.

 

[3113]

I agree. My first thought to the request was to say just that. The worst contribution of Chic Lit. to the world of literature was a paragraph on what Tiffany was wearing as she adjusted how her hair fell in front of the foyer mirror before going grocery shopping.

True. But mentioning clothing or hairstyle can tell the reader a lot about the character. Writers just have to learn the best description to save them from a laundry list of fashion details. For example, a writer can quickly sum up the clothing by referencing pop culture (if applicable). So, rather than "he had on a slim cut wool suit" try "he dressed like a refugee from the rat pack" which gives us an instant picture and saves the writer a whole paragraph describing suit, tie, etc. And his taste in clothing gives us an idea of his personality.

Another trick is to use the clothing to emphasize other, more important descriptions. Like, "With every step, the firm crescents of her marvelous ass played peek-a-boo from under her daisy dukes." This tells us what she's wearing, but does so by putting our focus on what that clothing literally reveals about this woman rather than the clothing itself.

Which is all to say, I don't think it has to be all one or the other. Descriptions do not need to be (and shouldn't be) a fashion show for the reader. But we don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and avoid any descriptions of hair or clothing. Especially when they can enhance not only the personality of a character, but his/her "sexiness."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I don't think I described clothing all the much in a story, unless it was appropriate to the plot. I did go into the clothing the females wore in my God Mother story, because the clothes described the time...late '60s.

I have on occasion also describe a woman's hairstyle, but usually I leave all that to the reader imagination. I let them visualize what someone would wear to go shopping or out to a nightclub or over to a friends house for dinner or just a visit.

I describe the situation and let the read fill in the blanks. I pretty sure they would visualize a woman wearing jeans and a flannel shirt when tramping through the woods. If they prefer to envision her in a flowing evening gown, well that's up to them, but she is carrying a rifle and wearing a backpack.

 

[sr71plt]

True. But mentioning clothing or hairstyle can tell the reader a lot about the character. Writers just have to learn the best description to save them from a laundry list of fashion details. For example, a writer can quickly sum up the clothing by referencing pop culture (if applicable). So, rather than "he had on a slim cut wool suit" try "he dressed like a refugee from the rat pack" which gives us an instant picture and saves the writer a whole paragraph describing suit, tie, etc. And his taste in clothing gives us an idea of his personality.

I agree as long as it's directly relevant to establishing character and doesn't clash with the plotline and is kept to the bare minimum needed.

One unmemorable novel I read recently by someone I know (and now am avoiding telling her I did read the book) has a woman in NYC called about a serious auto accident her daughter has had in Virginia which may be fatal. And what I get right after the call is the mother trying to decide what to wear on the airplane--a whole paragraph of it.

 

[3113]

One unmemorable novel I read recently by someone I know (and now am avoiding telling her I did read the book) has a woman in NYC called about a serious auto accident her daughter has had in Virginia which may be fatal. And what I get right after the call is the mother trying to decide what to wear on the airplane--a whole paragraph of it.

Oh my. It may be worth reading just for that! LOL! I think you should stop avoiding her and tell her how that passage, in particular, struck you and that you've been discussing it with fellow writers.