The essay by Joke Robaard More Burning Than Words opens with: “Who would ever use the dictionary in order to look up a word like ‘coat’, ‘shirt’ or ‘cape’? I am sure not many will, but I do, as I am interested in good descriptions of the exact words used in art education, art and design to communicate on the trades and subject fields; using the right words for - to name a few concepts - tools and machines, techniques and technology, products, materials, fields of expertise and disciplines, school subjects, forms of presentation, visual aspects, shapes and forms, design aspects, period styles and personal styles. As a former member of the Begrippenlijst Commissies Beeldende Kunst (Committee for the List of Definitions in the Visual Arts): Algemene Begrippenlijst, Federatie Beeldende Vorming, Utrecht, NL and Begrippenlijst Textiele Werkvormen, FBV, Utrecht, NL, I was eager to organize a meaningful list of words with their right descriptions for the secondary and vocational education. Not only to open up one’s mind to be able to take a new point of view, as I am convicted that is the indisputable job of any designer and artist and his sole duty to be able to talk about visual matters.”

Thick as a phonebook (if anyone still knows what that is), this book is my kind of book: provocative, defiant, eye-opening and stimulating. Glossaries and notations give signs of our level of cultivation and illiteracy - as today’s students say “that thing” to almost everything, surpassing the limits of language deficiency. Robaard concludes her interesting essay saying that all the different meanings make it difficult to talk about clothes, but at the same time make it incredibly interesting to re-think notions and invent new words for future design.

The essay by Barbara Brownie Dictionary Dressings concludes: “Challenges to accepted definitions of fashion terms, such as the images presented in Dictionary Dressings, can provoke critical engagement with categories of garments, leading to innovation.”
Laden with lots of photo material and contributions, this well-designed book surprises you with each page, dragging you into the book’s thesis that language limits or shapes fashion designer’s ideas as language affects the way we perceive the world around us.

I am sure this book affects the world of fashion design that in its turn will deliver new words too.
Angela van der Burght