Let's Learn English! Topic： Describing Clothing 👔👖👕 (Lesson Only) | Learn English with Bob the Canadian

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about describing clothing.

As you go through your day, you'll see people wearing all different kinds of clothing, and in this lesson I'll teach you the words we use to describe those clothes.

Now I should make a point here of saying this lesson is mostly based on the I see during my day.

So it's a very North American lesson.

It might be somewhat northern European as well, but I am aware that around the world people wear a variety of clothes and they're all awesome, but I usually teach the lessons from my perspective, from what I know.

So in this lesson I'll talk about things like suits, when people look at chic when they're wearing casual clothes and those types of things.

So once again welcome to this English lesson about describing clothing.

Casual.

This is my favorite way to dress.

Casual clothing is relaxed clothing style is a relaxed clothing style that is comfortable and not very formal.

In North America, I watch American TV, or when I watch Canadian TV, when I watch the news from either country.

This is a very common outfit.

We would call that a hoodie in my part of the world.

The shirt that this person is wearing.

And a pair of jeans and some I would call running shoes.

Some people call tennis shoes.

Some people call them oh what was oh sneakers.

So had an American boss once that called them sneakers.

But anyways, casual.

So t-shirt and jeans, something that's not very formal and very comfortable.

When you go to a shopping mall in my part of Canada at this time of year, people usually have a winter coat on as well, but often they will be wearing a hoodie, which is a sweatshirt with a hood, and jeans and running shoes.

So casual.

When you dress casual, you are wearing relaxed clothing in a style that is comfortable and not very formal, which brings us to the word formal.

So formal is a clothing style that is neat, traditional and worn for important events.

Generally, when men dress formally, they are going to wear a suit or at the very least a tie.

You don't have to, but generally, if I was to go to somewhere where it is expected that I wear formal clothing, would be dressing like that gentleman over there.

Uh women when they dress formally might wear a skirt and a jacket like this woman is.

Uh they might wear a dress.

They might also wear a suit similar to a man.

Um but obviously designed and tailored for a woman.

But a formal style of dress would be a clothing style that is neat, traditional and worn for important events.

Some people have jobs where they're expected to dress formally.

Have a job where I can kind of dress in the middle.

So you'll see I don't have a tie but I'm expected to wear a shirt with a collar.

Um, I'm wearing jeans right now, but if I go to work, I'm expected to wear khaki or some other type of pants.

So not semi formal or formal but definitely not casual.

Anyways formal.

Clothing style that is neat, traditional, and worn for important events.

Vintage.

Clothing from an earlier time period and often valued for its age and style.

A long time ago there was a baseball team in the city of Montreal called the Montreal Expos.

No longer are there.

But if you can find a sweat sweatshirt like this we would consider it vintage.

It's something from an earlier time.

It's something from many many years ago that you can't necessarily find or buy right now.

So you would need to go to a vintage clothing store or a second hand clothing store in order to find a sweatshirt like this.

So vintage clothing from an earlier time period and often valued for its age and style.

Clothing that is very bright, shiny, or designed to attract attention.

I do not own any flashy clothing.

I do not have a shirt like this that is multicolored.

I do not have any clothing that is bright colors.

I think that is as it should be for someone my age.

I am an older, an older gentleman who wants to look.

Um yeah, when I dress, I just want to look proper and wise.

Can you look wise when you dress?

Uh I don't go out to the club at night.

I don't have a flashy shirt to wear.

Even if I did, flashy would be clothing that is very bright, shiny or designed to attract attention.

And it's probably gonna be made of a fabric that reflects light really well.

It might be like a light silk type fabric.

You can see that this shirt would probably reflect light very well if you were out dancing away on the dance floor at the local discotheque.

We don't use the word discotheque very much in English anymore.

Um but flashy.

Bright, shiny, and designed to attract attention.

Sporty.

Clothing for sports or active movement often comfortable and practical.

So in North America sporty clothing isn't just for sports anymore.

Become part of the casual way of dressing as well.

But you can see that this person here is ready to maybe play some basketball if they wanted to.

They it looks like they're wearing a T-shirt.

They're wearing pants that look comfortable and allow for active movement.

Um, but I will say again um, people often just dress this way, even if they're not going to play a sport.

So you will see uh, men and women dressed in a sporty way uh, in Canada, in the United States, even when they're just buying groceries or at the mall.

But true to the definition, sporty clothing would be clothing for sports or active movement, often comfortable and practical matching.

Clothes that go well together having the same color, pattern, or style.

So, you can see I have a light blue shirt and then a dark blue shirt.

So, in some ways, this is a little bit of matching, okay?

It's not a perfect match, like the person in this picture who is wearing what we would call a charcoal colored shirt and charcoal colored pants.

Uh charcoal's like a deep gray.

It's not quite black. but it is matching perfectly.

Um if I open my eyes up a bit, you can see usually my eyes are blue when I wear blue.

So sometimes I wear clothes that match my eye color.

But matching would be clothes that go well together, having the same color, pattern or style.

Stylish.

Clothing that looks fashionable, attractive, and well put together.

So I am of course not an expert when it comes to stylish clothing.

I am an expert at finding clothes that fit, that are comfortable, that look okay and that I can wear for many, many years.

But some people are very stylish.

Can see here she has a very, very nice looking coat draped over her shoulders.

She's even accessorized with a nice handbag.

That kind of matches her look and she looks very, very stylish.

Okay, she definitely isn't wearing jeans and a hoodie and just hanging out at the grocery store buying something.

She is definitely dressed to look impressive and to look stylish.

So a nice, fashionable coat.

Uh a nice handbag that goes with her look.

So stylish clothing that looks fashionable, attractive, and well put together.

When we say something is well put together, it means someone thought about um what they were wearing so that it looked good.

Waterproof.

Material that does not allow water to pass through it.

When you live somewhere where it rains a lot.

It's nice to have a waterproof jacket at the very least.

A waterproof jacket is made of material so that when rain hits it, instead of going in, it kind of rolls off.

So if I wore this outside this isn't waterproof. would become soaking wet.

I would become drenched.

Those are the words we would use.

But if I had a nice waterproof jacket, I could go outside in the rain and I could put up the hood, which is also waterproof, and rain would just flow off of me.

It would be.

It would make the whole experience of being out in the rain much more pleasant breathable,

Fabric that allows air to pass through so the body stays cooler and drier.

So this is an interesting thing because I waterproof and breathable are two things you want in a jacket.

You want the jacket to be waterproof so you don't get wet, but you also want it to be breathable so that air can still kind of flow through it.

You don't want to wear.

If you wore a plastic garbage bag as a jacket, it would be very, very warm and you would sweat and it would be damp because there's it's not breathable.

I have a nice jacket.

The jacket keeps me dry because it's waterproof.

But it also is very comfortable because it's breathable.

It allows some air to flow between myself and the rest of the world.

So breathable.

Fabric that allows air to pass through so the body stays cooler and drier.

Clothing that follows the current styles that many people like.

I do not dress in a fashionable way.

I dress in an appropriate way.

But this person definitely has a fashionable look.

So they have a very fashionable jacket.

Their glasses are very fashionable.

They have a fashionable handbag and fashionable pants.

So clothing that follows current styles that many people like.

Clothing.

I also think in order to be fashionable, you do need to spend quite a bit of money on the clothing that you are wearing.

I don't know this person, but I would guess that this person has enough money to buy what I would call fancy clothes.

That's another word to describe clothing.

Fashionable, fancy clothing that follows the current styles that many people like. trendy.

Very fashionable right now following the newest styles.

So you might wonder what's the difference between fashionable and trendy.

To me fashionable has a certain style to it that looks very very nice.

You could wear fashionable clothing almost anywhere and it would be appropriate.

Whereas trendy might be a little more out there.

Um, when we say something's out there in English, it means very different, or not, what people are normally wearing.

If I was for instance to um I'm trying to think trendy clothing.

If you were to see people in like a music video, they're probably going to be wearing trendy clothing.

Uh, clothing that is very fashionable right now, following the newest styles.

Don't wear trendy clothing.

I should stop talking about myself.

Classic.

So a style that stays popular for a long time and does not really go out of fashion.

So this is a classic look in North America and probably in a lot of places around the world.

This is the look of a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

And So that is a style that stays popular for a long time and does not easily go out of fashion.

Wearing a nice white T-shirt and a pair of jeans in North America, in Canada and the United States, has been a classic look for decades.

Okay.

You could have, in the 50s, worn a T-shirt, a white T-shirt and jeans and been in style.

You could wear that today and you would still look good.

Um, not if it's from the fifties, though it might be worn out, but classic, a style that stays popular for as for a long time and does not easily go out of fashion.

Elegant.

Clothing that looks graceful, refined, and very tasteful.

So when I think about elegant clothing, I almost always think of the royal family in the United Kingdom.

So Princess Kate usually looks very elegant when she goes out in public.

She has a very nice hat.

She has a very nice probably a dress.

It might just be a jacket.

But she looks very elegant. definitely not wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

She's definitely dressing to look appropriate for her role in the world.

So as a princess she wants to look good.

She wants to look stylish.

And so generally she will buy clothing that she buys it herself.

I think she has people buy it for her.

Uh so that she looks graceful, refined, and very tasteful.

If you're a princess or a prince or a king or queen, you will probably always dress in a very elegant way, so that you look graceful and refined.

Plaid. plaid.

This shirt is actually plaid if you look at it.

Um multicolored horizontal and vertical lines forming squares or rectangles.

So plaid is in my opinion one of the coolest types of fabric.

Uh one of the coolest looks.

So generally the wear plaid shirts.

If you went back a few years, when I first started my YouTube channel, I almost always wore plaid shirts.

Now I have a few shirts that aren't plaid.

But most of my shirts for work.

Most of my collared shirts are plaid.

But multicolored horizontal and vertical lines forming rectangles, squares, or rectangle.

So if you look closely you can see there's like light, blue and white and gray lines and they kind of form little squares and patterns.

So, plaid. very cool type of fabric.

I highly recommend plaid for people in the world.

Chic.

A simple but very stylish and fashionable look.

So this is an interesting one.

Because when you look at the word you might not think that's how you pronounce it.

But the word is chic.

So chic I think goes beyond just what you're wearing.

So when I see a person like this, I think he looks very chic, because it looks like he has a very nice watch.

He has a very nice suit and a simple white dress shirt.

He has a very nice pair of sunglasses as well.

He just looks very chic.

So a simple and very stylish and fashionable look.

Colorful.

Clothing that has many bright or different colors.

So we sometimes call this a Hawaiian shirt.

This isn't totally a Hawaiian shirt but a shirt like this is very colorful.

You can see that there are lots of different colors on this shirt.

Uh, and this person is ready to I don't know.

Go out for the evening, go to the beach, hang out with friends.

He probably lives somewhere warm because it's a short sleeved shirt.

But yes, colorful clothing that has many bright or different colors like this shirt.

Plain.

Clothing with no decorations, patterns, or extra design.

So, you might you could even talk about a white T-shirt this way.

You could say a plain white T-shirt.

I think there's a band called the Plain White Tees.

Yeah. there Delilah.

Is that the song?

Maybe.

Someone should look that up.

Anyways, plain would be the opposite of colorful.

You can see this person has kind of a plain t-shirt.

It's a bit of a brown color.

Maybe a almost like the color of dirt.

Uh but there are no decorations, patterns, or extra design.

Even his pants are very very plain.

And some people just like to wear plain clothes.

Um which reminds me when a police officer is not in uniform and is just wearing normal clothes.

We call them a plain plain clothes.

They're in plain clothes.

Plain clothes.

Uh I can't I can't you're gonna have to look that one up.

Uh but you might hear that on a detective show.

Um but anyways, plain.

Clothing with no decorations, patterns, or extra design.

Patterned.

Fabric that has repeated designs or shapes on it.

I don't really use this word that much but you would describe this as a patterned shirt.

If you look at it closely, some of the yellow things on the shirt are the same as the other yellow things.

The little blue dots are kind of in different spots.

So we would say it's a patterned shirt fabric that has repeated designs or shapes on it. striped.

So when my kids were little there was a book called Where's Waldo?

And Waldo is the guy over there.

He is wearing a striped shirt.

Fabric that has long narrow lines of color across it.

And the point of Where's Waldo was to find Waldo on every page.

You can see he's right there with the yellow circle. the cover.

Um and it was a really fun book to look at with my children.

Uh as well as I Spy.

I think that was the other book we read, but Waldo always wore a striped red and white shirt and that should have made him easy to find.

But you probably be surprised how hard it was to find Waldo.

Striped fabric that has long narrow lines of color across it. tight.

Clothing that fits very closely to the body.

You would probably in English use the informal term jacked to describe this guy.

This guy is jacked.

When you say that it means the guy has a lot of muscle.

This guy definitely goes to the gym and he's very proud of how he looks.

He's very confident in how he looks and so he is wearing a tight shirt.

I would not wear a tight shirt.

It would not look great.

I do not look like this, but when you are in good shape, you might wear a tight shirt clothing that fits very closely to the body.

Loose clothing that hangs away from the body and is not tight.

If you live somewhere where it's very warm, you probably wear loose clothing, or we might say loose fitting clothing.

Clothing that allows air to kind of move between your body and the clothing to help keep you cool.

So I would say if you look at this his shirt is a little bit loose.

His pants are definitely loose.

Um and this is probably a very comfortable thing to wear in a very hot climate.

I would also probably say his clothing is breathable.

It allows him to sweat and there's airflow and it can cool him off.

But loose clothing that hangs away from the body and is not tight. baggy.

Very large clothing worn intentionally in a loose way.

So having taught for almost 30 years I have seen baggy jeans or baggy pants come and go.

They have been fashionable and then they go out of style.

They they have been trendy and then they are not cool anymore.

Um currently I think slightly baggy pants are in style.

I'm not 100% sure but you can see that this is definitely different than tight.

These are not tight jeans.

These are very large jeans worn intentionally in a loose way.

So that is what we would call baggy.

Baggy.

It's kind of a fun word to say.

Baggy. fitted.

Clothing made to follow the shape of the body closely.

So this is different than tight.

So this guy, I think, probably went and bought a suit and the suit fit pretty good.

He probably had the suit fitted or tailored to more closely follow the shape of his body.

He also is probably in pretty good shape.

By the way if you want to wear fitted clothing you probably need to be in somewhat good shape.

So he has his jacket fitted.

You can see it kind of follows the shape of his body.

Um but fitted.

Clothing made to follow the shape of the body closely. oversized.

Clothing intentionally made larger than the person's normal size.

You could also describe this as baggy, but I would probably say she's wearing an oversized hoodie or an oversized sweatshirt.

Um, most of the time people wear this because it's comfortable.

Wouldn't necessarily wear this in public.

They might wear this on a Friday when they get home from work.

They might just put on an oversized hoodie and some baggy jeans and just lay on the couch and watch TV and relax.

Comfortable, comfy clothing that feels good to wear and allows for easy movement.

So, this is probably the classic example of comfy clothes.

A sweatshirt, maybe jogging pants.

I'm not 100% sure but clothing that just feels nice to wear.

Clothing that you usually don't wear in public, although more and more often I see people wearing comfy clothes in public.

And by the way, comfy is simply an informal short form of comfortable.

Um if someone said, hey, what do you do when you get home from work on a Friday?

I usually say, oh, I just put on some comfy clothes.

Jen and I have supper and then sometimes we'll watch a movie.

So comfortable or comfy clothing that feels good to wear and allows for easy movement.

Lightweight clothing that is light, and easy to wear without feeling heavy.

This I would describe as a lightweight jacket.

Um or you could even say light like a light jacket.

It's designed so that it keeps you a little bit warm.

Maybe keeps the rain off of you.

Um, but it doesn't feel very heavy, and what's nice about a lightweight jacket is you can fold it up and carry it with you.

Then if it starts to rain, you can easily just unfold it and put it on.

Uh and it's not annoying to carry it around.

So lightweight clothing that is light and easy to wear without feeling heavy.

Clothing that feels thick or weighty often for warmth.

So if I said to you I'm going to go outside I'm going to wear a heavy coat today.

You probably then know that it's cold and it might even be snowing.

So heavy isn't just about the weight.

Like I

It.

It's not just it will be heavy, like hard to lift, but it also describes something that is thick and warm.

It's nice to have a heavy coat if you need to go outside in the winter, because it really really helps keep you warm.

Durable clothing that is strong and able to last a long time without damage.

I would describe these as work pants.

You can kind of tell because he has work boots on and work pants are always very durable.

When you say work pants, you often are referring to the pants that people wear who do physical labor, like carpenters or plumbers.

Brick layers.

I try to act these out or electricians.

No sorry that was a bad thing to act out.

But if you go to a construction site, almost everyone there will be wearing some sort of durable work pants.

Clothing that is strong and able to last a long time without damage.

[A Comprehensive Guide to Describing Clothing in English]-[Let's Learn English! Topic： Describing Clothing 👔👖👕 (Lesson Only)]

📋 Summary

A Comprehensive Guide to Describing Clothing

Style and Formality

Patterns and Design

Fit and Function

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript