Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 417. Today the title of the lesson
is the difference between clothing, apparel and attire. All right. Sometimes
students will ask what's the difference between these three ? There is a little
bit of crossover, but I'll try to explain it in a way where you might be more
likely to use it in one situation than another. Okay. Let's look the
first one. Clothing used in business and as something people need. All right. We
say it's used in business like when you go to an everyday store. You know a
common store like Walmart or something. They might say you know, that's women's
clothing, that's men's clothing children's clothing, something like that.
So that's the way we use it for you know common clothing in business. Okay. It is a
more formal word for clothes and is sometimes used for particular types such
as waterproof clothing, protective clothing, outdoor clothing or things
along that you know, etc. All right. Let's continue. All right. We have we have some examples
here. The way we would use it. The women's clothing section is located at the far
end of the store or the children's located... the children's clothing section
is located you know, near the front of the store. Something like that. All. right.
Let's continue. Fisherman's sometimes use waterproof clothing. You know, just like
particular times. Food and clothing were sent to victims of that earthquake. Now
this is the situation where clothes. We use the word clothing for clothes that
somebody needs. You know, that's something that is needed. If you're just talking
about your regular wardrobe. people usually just use the word clothes most
often. Like those... that's my clothes. That's his clothes. My brothers clothes,
sister's clothes. We probably just use the word clothes more than any other. All
right. Let's continue The clothing industry again like for business. The
clothing industry wants the government to impose more duties on imports well
maybe this the clothing industry in a particular company or country and they
don't like the competition. They don't like cheaper clothes coming in from
other countries. So they think it's too unfair. So they might try to lobby the
government to put more duty on imports. Okay. Let's continue. All right.
Now we're up to apparel. Apparel is a word, especially in American English that
is used that is used especially for business for nicer more high-class
clothes. So apparel is more limited to just business but as opposed to clothing
if you want your clothing to sound nicer or more high-class or more high level,
you might use the word apparel instead of just clothing by itself. You know, each
store you know has their own reasons for using it. So it's hard to pinpoint this.
But the word apparel does make it sound like it's a more formal or more nice
class of clothes that are probably more expensive. Okay. Let's continue. All right.
And we have some examples here. That boutique specializes in imported women's
apparel from Italy. Again making it sound more expensive. Nike just usually focuses
on sports apparel. Now to be honest you know they have sportswear which is more
casual but Nike tries to make itself appear more high-class and has higher
prices on their sportswear than other companies. So they might use it for that
reason. All right. Let's to continue. Attire. Okay. The word attire is often used about the
level of somebody's clothes or somebody's dress or how proper or how
suitable for particular occasions. Okay. It can also be used for certain
categories such as dance attire, wedding attire, etc. Good and we have several
examples this is probably the most common one you will hear. Like when you
enter a restaurant. Sometimes they may have a sign proper attire is required,
especially if it's a high-class restaurant. That wants like a man's wear a
jacket or a tie or something like that. Of course they can make up their own
rules about what's acceptable or not. All right. Let's continue. If you are going to
at an award show you must wear formal attire. So this is the sense of how
suitable it is. The next one. That weddings show has a large selection of
winning attire. Again you know, suitable for certain occasions and the last one
we might have here. Flip-flops and bathing suits are not proper attire for
this restaurant. Yeah. I've often heard that restaurants
around Beach areas have to be concerned because some people think they're on
vacation and they think they can come right off the beach and sometimes don't
even walk into the restaurant barefoot. Or just wearing flip-flops. You know,
maybe for the reason of hygiene, they don't want them to do that. They
want them to at least be wearing you know some normal shoes or don't just
come in in your bathing suit or especially not just in a bikini or
something and sit down. Again they might not think that's the proper hygiene. So
that's a way that you might see it used. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was
formative. I hope it was helpful. So now I hope you can kind of see how you're more likely to
use one than the other. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye