Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms that come up across the site, including the US and UK words for the same thing.
A
- Armoirealso: clothes press
- A freestanding clothes cabinet, usually with more decorative framing than a plain wardrobe and often fitted with shelves and drawers rather than a full hanging rail.
C
- Capsule Wardrobealso: capsule collection
- A small, deliberately chosen set of clothes where nearly every piece combines with nearly every other, so few garments produce many outfits.
- Closetalso: built-in wardrobe, fitted wardrobe
- In American English, a storage space built into the structure of a room. In British English the same thing is called a built-in or fitted wardrobe.
- Clothes Mothsalso: case-bearing moth, webbing moth
- Small moths whose larvae feed on keratin in natural fibres — wool, cashmere, silk and fur — causing the small irregular holes found in stored knitwear.
- Cost Per Wearalso: CPW, price per wear
- The price of a garment, plus any upkeep, divided by the number of times it is worn — what an item actually costs you each time you put it on.
D
- Digital Wardrobealso: virtual wardrobe, digital closet, virtual closet
- A catalogued, searchable version of the clothes you own, usually photographed item by item, used for outfit planning and wear tracking.
- Dry Clean Onlyalso: professional clean
- A care label instruction meaning the garment should be cleaned with solvent rather than water, usually because water would shrink, distort or damage it.
M
- Minimalist Wardrobealso: minimal wardrobe
- A wardrobe built around owning less on purpose — fewer garments, bought more slowly, kept only while they earn their place.
N
- Neutralsalso: base colours, base colors
- Colours that combine with almost anything — black, navy, grey, camel, cream, olive and similar — used as the base of a wardrobe palette.
O
- Outfit Formulaalso: uniform, personal uniform
- A repeatable combination of garment types that reliably works — for example layer plus plain top plus dark trousers — used as a template rather than a fixed outfit.
P
- Pillingalso: bobbling
- Small balls of tangled fibre that form on fabric surfaces where they rub, most commonly on knitwear at the underarms, cuffs and sides.
- Project 333also: 333 method
- A minimalist fashion challenge created by Courtney Carver: dress with 33 items for 3 months, including clothes, accessories, jewellery and shoes.
S
- Seasonal Rotationalso: seasonal swap, wardrobe changeover
- Storing off-season clothing away and bringing the current season out, typically two to four times a year.
- Slow Fashionalso: conscious fashion
- An approach to clothing that prioritises fewer, longer-lasting garments and slower purchasing over rapid seasonal turnover.
T
- Transitional Wardrobealso: transitional dressing, between-season wardrobe
- The small set of layerable pieces that bridge two seasons, worn during the weeks when neither the summer nor the winter wardrobe quite works.
- Travel Capsulealso: travel capsule wardrobe, packing capsule
- A small set of clothes chosen for a trip so that every piece combines, producing many outfits from a carry-on.
W
- Wardrobe Analyticsalso: wardrobe statistics
- What the numbers say about a wardrobe: what gets worn, what never does, what each piece costs per wear, and what that reveals about how you shop.
- Wardrobe Essentialsalso: basics, staples, core wardrobe
- The specific garments that appear in the most outfits in a given wardrobe — which makes the list personal rather than universal.
- Wardrobe Inventoryalso: clothing inventory, wardrobe catalogue
- A record of every garment you own, typically with category, colour, purchase date, price and the number of times each piece has been worn.
- Wear Countalso: times worn
- The number of times a garment has been worn — the denominator in cost per wear, and the single most useful figure a wardrobe record can hold.
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