two fashion terms

[Alina Israeli]

I am sure that the glitterati who buy $220 shoes and spend in London  
more time than an occasional holiday know those terms. In fact those  
terms, if they are commonly used by the upper crust, may eventually  
trickle down to the average folk. On the other hand fashion is so  
changeable, take saddle shoes. When they were out of fashion the  
younger generation did not know the term even, and then they came  
back into fashion all of a sudden.

Alina

On Apr 2, 2008, at 1:37 PM, William Ryan wrote:

> My youngest daughter (12) says they still call them 'gym pumps' (we  
> live on the southern border of London); in my youth serious male  
> ballroom dancers wore shiny black patent leather pumps, perhaps  
> still do; Scottish and Irish folk dancers wear pumps, so do ballet  
> dancers (at least in the UK). Most of these appear to be sold in  
> the USA as 'flats', but sometimes also as 'pumps': Barneys New York  
> are currently advertising 'Miu Miu Sweetheart pumps' at the sale  
> price of $220. I also have found a few advertising sites which sell  
> 'court shoes' in the US, both in the UK sense and in the sense of  
> 'tennis shoes'. Utterly confusing, time-wasting, but fascinating -  
> hard on Russian translators!
>
> Will Ryan
>
>
> John Dunn wrote:
>> Far be it from me to add a further layer of confusion, but where I  
>> come from, pumps were what we wore on our feet for PE lessons in  
>> school (i.e. what were known elsewhere as plimsolls).  I suspect  
>> that both terms have been replaced by 'trainers', though, living  
>> as I do at the top of an ivory tower, I cannot speak with certainty.
>>
>> John Dunn.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Kristen Harkness <kmhst16 at PITT.EDU>
>> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
>> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:17:44 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] two fashion terms
>>
>> Another two cents: We recently had a discussion about tufli- 
>> lodochkoi  in my department (for Russian and the Czech variant).   
>> We concluded  that if you are translating for a US audience, not  
>> many people know  what "court shoes" are these days so pumps is  
>> the better option.  In  the US, "pumps" means a dressy woman's  
>> shoe with a heel.  They may  have a sling back rather than a  
>> closed back, but a closed back is the  "classic" variant.
>>
>> Also, in the US ochki-babochki are more properly "cat eye   
>> glasses" (sometimes written "cat-eye glasses" or "cat's eye  
>> glasses"),  not "cat eyeglasses."
>>
>> Kristen Harkness
>>
>>
>> Kristen Harkness
>> PhD Candidate
>> University of Pittsburgh
>> History of Art and Architecture
>> 104 Frick Fine Arts Building
>> Pittsburgh, PA 15260
>> kmhst16 at pitt.edu
>>
>> John Dunn
>> Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
>> University of Glasgow, Scotland
>>
>> Address:
>> Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
>> 40137 Bologna
>> Italy
>> Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
>> e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
>> johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your  
>> subscription
>>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web  
>> Interface at:
>>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>
>>
>>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------