Adjectives to describe clothes in English | How to describe clothes?

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to  my English lesson where I tried to help you  

to get a better understanding of the English  language, particularly where you might be  

aiming to improve your conversational  English. Or you may be trying to  

improve your opportunities for more promotion in  your particular job and you want to really nail  

down your English language. Well, we're here to  help you. So what are we going to talk about today  

we're going to talk about clothes and we're going  to talk about adjectives to describe clothes.

But before I do that, just let me remind  you that you can listen to me on my podcast,  

you can download the podcast and don't  forget to subscribe to the channel,  

and you'll find the button  down here on the left-hand side  

and I give you my contact details later, should  you wish to contact me or pass the details on  

to your friend. Okay, so back to our  lesson today we're talking about clothes.

And in particular, we're talking about  adjectives that describe clothes so many,  

many ways to describe the clothes that we wear.  So let's look at a few of them tight-fitting. So

tight-fitting are clothes that don't leave  much room for breathing so they're really  

tight. You can see every inch  of the person's body there,

particularly somebody who's really fit. They like  to wear tight-fitting clothes that will show their  

finger or their shape. Okay, so tight-fitting, not  much room for breathing. Yep, so when you squeeze  

into something that is tight-fitting,  the opposite of tight-fitting will be

baggy. So some people like to wear baggy clothes.  Baggy clothes are very loose lots of room in them.  

And often we use the word trousers, baggy  trousers or baggy shirts, something with  

lots of room. Particularly particularly on a hot  summer's day, you'd like to wear baggy clothes  

that will allow the air to circulate around  your body baggy trousers, very fashionable,

casual clothes so when we  talk about casual clothes,  

that the opposite to the form of clothes that we  might wear the business suit, okay or the suit we  

would wear for a wedding they're very very form  for when something says casual clothes. It could  

be something like this the T-shirt, it could  be a shirt without a tie, or it could be loose  

or stylish jacket or no jacket at all.  And just a pair of casual trousers. So  

casual clothes, the casual look so some people  today most people enjoy the casual look to dress  

casually when they go to the office. So the  idea of a suit and a shirt and tie they seem  

to have gone out of the window people don't  use them so often. So that brings us on then

to formal so formal clothes are the clothes that  we used to wear when I worked in an office many  

many years ago. It was always a suit of colour and  tie so you had many suits in your wardrobe if you  

looked in my wardrobe now, no suits at  all. Everything is casual. So if you get  

an invitation to somebody's wedding unwritten  along the bottom of the wedding invitation is  

formal dress essential, meaning  you have to wear a suit.

It might even be a black-tie one of those  very specific suits we have a little black  

tie and a white shirt and a black jacket  and black trousers so it will tell you  

how formal the dress code is but it might  be the jacket and trousers for the man and

the full dress for the woman so look out on those  invitations to say that it is a casual dress.  

We can dress really the way you want or  formula where you have to be very specific  

either the suit for the man and the  dress or trouser suit for the woman also

colourful so when we talk about colourful  clothes when I and lots of other people like  

to wear colourful clothes it would be nice bright  orange or bright yellow or red or whatever your  

favourite colour happens to be or it could be all  of them so you end up with looking like a rainbow.

Okay, so colourful clothes, well that's  a very colourful outfit that you have so  

multicoloured really to suit that day in the  middle of July in the middle of August when  

hopefully the sun is shining. We'd like to  wear those colourful clothes. plain clothes.

So again, the opposite of colourful when  something is plain. It's very ordinary.  

It's very dull. There's just one colour  and usually, the colour could be a grey,  

or a mushroom or the column my wife hates me  wearing brown so if you ever see me in brown,  

it means my wife's not home for the  day because she doesn't like me wearing  

brown so Brown, beige, mushroom, these could be  described as plain colours. Not very attractive.  

Not very interesting. We might call them sombre  meaning a little bit dull. Okay, so plain clothes.

We have plain-clothes detectives in the police  force. These are policemen that don't wear a  

uniform so they blend in with the rest  of the people. So they can walk around  

and spot people and do their investigation,  plain-clothes detectives. Okay?

Tasteful. So when something is tasteful,  it looks nice. It could be tasteful for the  

occasion and nice suit for a wedding  very tasteful. Somebody could be  

tastefully dressed when they go into  a very important business meeting.

It might be formal, but it certainly will  be very tasteful. A nice suit, a nice shirt,  

a nice tie. So depending on the  occasion, you dress to fit that  

particular occasion so tastefully dressed. Okay,  so something that really really looks good.

We can have unfashionable clothes, so  unfashionable clothes are clothes that  

are not really in at the moment so you'll find  out from your young children and your teenagers.  

What are fashionable clothes so you  walk out of the bedroom and they look  

what are you wearing that looks like it came out  of the ark Yeah, so you're wearing something that  

you like something's very comfortable. But as far  as they're concerned, it's unfashionable. It's not  

really fashionable to wear that type of jacket or  those type of jeans or even those type of shoes.

Ah, come on, Dad! You have to be fashionable,  you have to keep up with the times.  

But as I always tell them, what was fashionable  10 years ago may be unfashionable today but in  

five years time if you hold on to it long enough,  guess what it's going to be fashionable again so  

fashionable or on fashionable.  It depends on your mood.

Smart so everybody likes to be  smartly dressed or most people  

like to be smartly dressed so it doesn't have  to be formal. It doesn't have to be casual.  

It just has to be smart meaning the shirt  has been ironed recently. The trousers have  

been washed or cleaned. The shoes have been  polished. Okay, so Oh he looks very smart.

So that young boy coming for his first  communion or his first day at school and he's  

wearing the clothes that will really make  him look smart. Even if it's only just for  

one day and tomorrow there'll be creased and  whatever grass stains whatever else happens to  

kids clothes so yeah try to be  smartly dressed for the occasion to  

dress smart so it's not casual. It's not formula  just means clean. Well pressed well presented  

and not ripped or torn or up like this like  that. Whatever it might be so nice and smart.

Trendy, well. This is a modern word  trendy so what is trendy mean what  

usually it means something that is fashionable at  the moment so is it purple or is it move or is it  

orange? What's the trendy colour what's the colour  that's in fashion? Or if I go out and I wear a  

T-shirt which is cut off at the the arms here  somewhere so all that's very trendy, I haven't  

seen you wearing that before. So by yes it takes  20 years of your look. So to have something trendy

Have you worn glasses or they've got a blue  tinge of some different colour? They could  

be described as trendy because they they  look modern. They look really chic. They're  

something that you didn't get  from your granddad or your  

or your grandmother, okay, so something trendy,  something fashionable, something modern.

Scruffy. Well, anything scruffy is something  that was dirty so we actually use the two words  

together off that scruffy dirty Why didn't you  take it off and put it in the washing machine or  

wash it and you can wear it tomorrow? No ma'am I  like to wear this so the kids when they're going  

to university or school that they like to wear  what they like to wear not what you want them  

to wear. And okay some jeans look a little bit  scruffy some t-shirts look a little bit scruffy.

You know they like to dress  real loose and casual clothes so  

unfortunately sometimes they look scruffy.  Look, your shoes are scruffy! What were  

you doing? Were you running through  a field? Yeah. So scruffy clothes,  

scruffy dirty, something really not as clean  and not as smart the word that we we also used.

And then finally sleeveless. But... This  is a sleeve, okay. And this is a sleeve. So  

jumpers have sleeves. Some shirts have sleeves.  Jackets have sleeves. But if you're wearing a  

T-shirt, it is sleeveless. Meaning it is cut off  here or cut off there. Cut off here cut off there.  

So sleeveless, something that has no sleeves,  they're not long sleeves. They are short sleeves  

or sleeveless. So you go into the sport shop and  you asked to buy Can I have a sleeveless top or  

a sleeveless t-shirt or whatever particular item  that you're going to buy but if it's sleeveless,  

it's cut up at the top or very close to the top of  your arms. Okay, so let me give them to you again.

So we've got tight-fitting, baggy,  casual, formal, colourful, plain.,  

tasteful, unfashionable, smart, scruffy, trendy.  

And finally, sleeveless Okay, all different  adjectives describing clothes. Okay, well,  

I hope you've enjoyed that. As I said before,  if you want to contact me, then you can do so on  

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