Fashion and style

A small, tightly edited range released for a limited time, often with a guest name attached, and often gone before the window display is finished.

When a famous designer and a high-street chain join forces for one release, and the queue forms long before anyone unlocks the doors.

The person who decides what a fashion house looks like each season, from the clothes to the adverts, and who takes the final bow on the runway.

A limited release that lands at an announced time and sells out almost at once, turning shopping into a weekly test of speed.

A cheaper look-alike of a famous product, proudly shared online; one brand replied by swapping the dupes for the real thing.

The few frantic days each season when a city's designers show their next collections and every taxi seems booked by someone dressed in black.

Outfits chosen to survive mud, sun and a long walk to the main stage, ideally while looking effortless in every photograph.

Hand-made, made-to-measure fashion from Paris, and a legally protected title: in France nobody may simply decide their dresses are haute couture.

The handbag everyone wants in a given season; the most famous of all was, by its namesake's own account, sketched in mid-air.

The simple black dress that works almost anywhere; Vogue first compared it to a Ford car, because it was meant for everyone.

The urge to cover clothes and bags in a brand's initials, a habit that began, ironically, as a way to stop the copycats.

The label that turned Italian craftsmanship into a global brand, launched by a fashion show held in a private villa in Florence in 1951.

The person a designer pictures while sketching; fashion's best-known muse friendship began with a mix-up over which Hepburn was coming.

One shade picked each year by Pantone to sum up the mood of the moment; the very first, for 2000, was a millennium blue called Cerulean.

French for ready-to-wear: clothes made in standard sizes and sold off the rail, yet shown on the runway with all the drama of couture.

Very expensive clothes designed to look like nothing much, recognisable mainly to people who own the same cashmere.

The long, narrow stage where models walk a collection past the front row; it began as a theatrical parade in a London showroom.

The heaviest fashion magazine issue of the year, crammed with autumn collections and adverts; one Vogue edition ran to 916 pages.

A collector who knows release dates by heart, keeps every box and may own pairs that have never touched a pavement.

Fashion photographed on real people outdoors rather than on models indoors; its best-loved pioneer did his rounds by bicycle.

Keeping dark glasses on after sunset, in clubs or under flashbulbs; a 1984 hit turned the habit into a chorus everybody knows.

A model famous enough to be known by first name alone; the word sounds very 1990s but was already in print during the Second World War.

T-shirts, hoodies and souvenirs sold around a tour; one of rock's best-known logos earned its student designer a fee of £50.

Second-hand clothes old enough to count as history; the red carpet fell for them when an Oscar winner wore a gown from the archive.