How to Make a Fashion Statement in a World of 'Voguespeak,' Muffin Tops

voguespeak, I guess. Vogue being, of course, the number one fashion magazine internationally.

line, a word that FIT assistant curator Fred Dennis says means about the same thing as a designer's collection:

pieces depending on the designer. Pieces are looks. A look is a total head-to-toe ensemble. So you can start with a hat perhaps, a top, shoes."

haute couture, a phrase that translates literally as high culture but which also connotes the glamorous, expensive side of fashion -- or, as they say, la mode. Again, Valerie Steele.

decolletage [day-coe-la-TAHGE] for example, which is the noun referring to a neckline of say a dress, usually a low neckline, as in a plunging decolletage."

fashionista, meaning an almost obsessively knowledgeable expert on what's hot -- meaning in, or in fashion - and what's not. FIT's Tamsen Schwartzman contrasts fashionista with fashion victim.

cutting edge -- bringing some trend into the market."

dope, sharp and phat (it's spelled P-H-A-T) are borrowed from popular music and the hip-hop scene.

catwalk.

mom pant, can never be sexy.

mom pooch [the stomach area]."

muffin top.

over the top as another example.

zeitgeist, adds Sorkin.

now, and what is happening. That's kind of tricky because once something is now, it's also kind of over."

chic -- the word means fashionable -- but tomorrow, they'll be so yesterday.