Fundamentals of Fashion and Textiles
What the exam tests
This domain checks the vocabulary that links fashion change to textile production: style, fashion, fad, classic, the fashion cycle, and the fibre-to-garment chain. Questions are usually definition matching, sequence ordering, or a short product scenario.
Core rules
- Style is a distinctive shape or characteristic; fashion is a style accepted by a group at a given time; a fad rises and falls quickly; a classic remains acceptable across many seasons.
- Fashion cycle: introduction → rise → peak/maturity → decline → obsolescence. Prices are usually highest at introduction and lowest at clearance.
- Textile sequence: fibre → yarn → fabric → finishing/wet processing → garment → retail. Each stage adds value and can change performance.
- Fibres are natural or man-made; yarns are staple or filament; fabrics are woven, knitted or nonwoven.
Worked example
A printed shirt first appears in two designer outlets at a high price, then in many mid-market stores, then on discount. Reasoning: the limited launch is introduction; wider distribution and rising volume is the rise; mass availability is the peak; discounting indicates decline. It is not a fad because it has moved through a distribution ladder over time, not a single short burst.
Traps
- Labelling every popular item a fad; fads are short-lived, classics endure.
- Reversing fabric and garment stages or treating finishing as optional.
- Assuming “natural” automatically means better performance.