Translating Fashion Trends: Adapting Style and Terminology for Global Audiences

Lots of people worry about their looks despite their age. Research has shown that almost every other teenager goes crazy about his or her looks. But the thing is that when designers try to cater to their needs, they have to communicate in different languages.

The good news is that fashion conveys meaning that can cut across national and cultural boundaries. But it still needs terminology to convey it in a culturally and socially acceptable manner. Let’s review the key considerations in adapting style and terminology for global audiences.

Get a handle on cultural context

First things first. You need to come to grips with the cultural context in which you work. Fashion trends cannot be detached from cultural trends, so you must follow them closely to make your products relevant. Identify your key target groups and learn everything there is to know about their lifestyles, preferences, values, wants, and habits.

These are all critical pieces of information. You must take deliberate action to collect all this data, analyze it, and translate it into an adapted style and terms for various audiences in the world.

Focus on terminology

You need to put together a list of key fashion-specific terms that you absolutely need to use as part of your communication and marketing strategy. These are the terms you need to translate adequately without losing the level of detail or nuance that is critical for understanding. Find reliable translators to help you with quality translation.

To ensure the highest quality of translation, you must find a service with a proven track record of impeccable performance and great customer reviews. You can’t go wrong by choosing reliable services at IsAccurate. It offers a range of companies employing native translators with advanced translation skills. They will ensure top-quality of translated materials are delivered to you on time and completed at affordable prices and to the highest professional standards.

Adapt style for global audiences

As noted, localizing your meaning and intentions can have a crucial impact on the effectiveness of your efforts. Scrutinize your style for local relevance. You must make sure that your chosen style does not take different meanings in a different context. If it does, it can turn your message upside down.

You risk compromising both your intended meaning and reputation. At worst, you can end up with messages that are insulting rather than appealing. This does not bode well for your business, especially if you strive to go global.

Use technology

It is hard to hope for success in the 21st century without using advanced technology. Technology plays an important role in developing quality translation and localization services. Machine translation is a widely used tool, but it may not always be sufficient if you need sophisticated translation.

At times, you should go for human translation because only human translators might be able to capture and translate the deep-rooted cultural nuances and phraseological intricacies.

Collaborate

Collaboration is absolutely necessary to achieve great results when it comes to adapting style and terminology for global audiences. You need to get a range of professionals involved. You should strive to get people with different backgrounds and experiences. These must also come from various trades, including marketing experts, designers, linguists, and localization professionals.

Teamwork becomes your prerequisite for success. It also puts eyes on the translation process, helping avoid lapses, errors, and typos.

Bottom Line

Fashion attracts lots of customers from around the globe. Indeed, it can be viewed as a universal phenomenon that transcends cultural and socio-economic differences. Still, you need to communicate with various audiences to explain the meaning of your design solutions.

This can be a tall order because translation is fraught with inaccuracies when it comes to translating culturally sensitive content. To avoid the embarrassment of irrelevant translation, you must engage with a broad range of professionals, be clear on the most important terms, adapt your style, and use advanced technology.

***

Daniel Soto is an experienced writer, blogger, and fashionista. As a linguist, he is interested in how language affects the symbolic meaning designers communicate through their products. The degree to which terminology is adapted for global audiences determines the success or failure of designers’ efforts.