Random Questions

[alixtii]

The kind of store one goes to buy prom dresses--what would one call it? I have it as "fancy dress store" in my first draaft, but I'm afraid that would confuse British people.

Also, the metal thing one hangs one clothes on after leaving a fitting room if one doesn't want them--anyone have a name for that?

Comments

[paradox-dragon.livejournal.com]

A formal wear shop, maybe?

[paradox-dragon.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I call it the reject rack, but I'm pretty sure I just made that up.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

That should work. At the very least it won't have BE speakers envisioning a store filled with Hallowe'en costumes.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Google reveals people using it that way, if not a whole lot. Also, it sounds right to me; I tried "discard rack" but all the Google hits had to do with card games.

Thank you!

[paradox-dragon.livejournal.com]

No problem.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Sometimes I forget you are a man, and then you ask a question like this and we are all reminded. The metal things one hangs clothes on are called 'clothes hangers' and traditionally they are then hooked in an article of furniture called a 'wardrobe' or onto a 'clothes rack'. The practice of storing clothes on the floor is not generally approved of amongst people who care about the clothes.

;)

::runs away::

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Hee. See the comments above for what I was really thinking of. Perhaps "fitting room" is itself an Americanism?

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

We would say 'changing room' but 'fitting room' is perfectly understandable. You are right though that 'fancy dress shop' immediately creates an image of Halloween costumes.

I think the rack is a 'reject rail/rack' or 'returns rail/rack' if it has a name at all.

Do most people actually buy their prom dress? Isn't hiring one more usual? In which case 'dress-hire shop' might do.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The place where you try on dresses is a dressing room! And I think prom dresses (peasant: bought not rented) from department stores anyway.

[deliriumdriver.livejournal.com]

Oftentimes girls go to department stores to find prom dresses. And when I worked at Banana Republic, I don't know that we called the rack anything in particular, but we referred to the discarded items (and often by extension the area where they were kept) as "go-backs", in that we had to put them back, though I don't think any shopper would refer to them as such. Sometimes go-backs were put directly on a rolling rack, which is what it's called if the rack is on wheels (thus making it easier to transport large quantities of go-backs to their proper places).

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Guys usually rent their tuxedos for prom, but girls buy their dresses. (Prom costs a lot more for girls than guys.) Boys buy their suits for prom-like dances which aren't prom though.

Although nnow that I think of it I'm not sure that lower-class schools have prom-like dances other than prom. A homecoming dance, maybe. Whereas my school, in addition to homecoming and maybe a couple pan-school dances, also had a dance for each class, with the dress code becoming increasily more formal. (Although the levels of formality demonstrated by women's clothes is something I do not claim to understand.)