This article examines the linguistic and cultural evolution of key fashion terms—such as “corset,” “suit,” “streetwear,” and digital-era neologisms like “drip” and “core aesthetics.” By tracing their etymology, sociopolitical context, and semantic transformation, the study highlights how fashion terminology functions as a mirror of identity, ideology, and technological change. Supplementary terms including “le smoking,” “athleisure,” “grunge,” “genderless fashion,” and “Y2K” are also analyzed to explore the intersection of subculture, media, and linguistic branding.

Fashion terminology, discourse analysis, linguistic shift

Crystal Abidin, Tama Leaver, and Tim Highfield, Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures, Polity Press, 2020.

Caroline Evans, Fashion at the Edge, Yale University Press, 2003.

David Muggleton and Rupert Weinzierl, The Post-subcultures Reader, Berg, 2003.

Dick Hebdige, Subculture, Routledge, 1979.

Jennifer Craik, Fashion: The Key Concepts, Berg, 2009.

Joanne Entwistle, The Fashioned Body, Polity Press, 2000.

Jo B. Paoletti, Pink and Blue, Indiana University Press, 2012.

Leigh Summers, Bound to Please, Berg Publishers, 2003.

Teri Agins, Hijacking the Runway, Penguin, 2018.

Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye, Fashion Since 1900, Thames & Hudson, 2010.

Valerie Steele, The Corset, Yale University Press, 2001.