Wardrobe

What makes gingham different from Tattersall? How does herringbone get its zigzag? A guide to familiar clothing patterns, unfamiliar names and what their construction reveals.

A tiny stamp can look wonderfully official without proving very much. Here’s how to tell a full UK hallmark from a lone 925, SILVER or plating mark — and what each actually tells you when buying second-hand.

Most second-hand glove advice stops at checking the leather and finding your size. I wanted to know what the parts between the fingers were doing — and whether my hatred of gloves was really a fit problem.

Corset, bodice and stays are not three perfectly separate garment categories. Here’s how the terms overlap, which construction details matter, and what second-hand photographs can actually tell you.

I want another black jacket, but not another generic staple. Three awkward garments already in my wardrobe tell me what the replacement needs to do.

A practical guide to measuring clothes laid flat for online buying and selling, from pit-to-pit and sleeve length to rise, inseam, waist and overall length.

Aesthetic labels and garment names both fail in different ways. Here’s how to work out what carries the character, adjust a second-hand search and recognise it on the rail.

By mid-September I was in a rut, and my clothes had gone oddly passive with it. One deliberately dressed Wednesday felt different — before the quiz, before D&D, and before I had a neat explanation for why.

A pair of trousers can fasten perfectly at the waist and still fit badly everywhere that matters. Rise, seat, movement and alterations tell you far more than the size label.

Whimsigoth, cottagecore, coquette, fairycore: the labels multiply faster than most wardrobes do. Here is what eight of them actually mean, how they overlap and what to search for once you want the clothes rather than the hashtag.