A Report On The Translation Of Fashion, Costume, And Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, And Footwear Through The Ages(excerpt)

Over the past decades, labor division becomes increasingly specialized, so there emerges a higher demand for professional translation. Translation of different types of texts has its own translation strategies and criteria, and it is of great significance to study the translation of fashion texts as there is not much study on the translation of this text type.Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages, published in 2003, is a series of books about the fashion history in Europe and America and co-authored by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. This series consists of 5 volumes, each containing abundant professional knowledge about the clothing materials and design art. We have 3 members as a group to co-translate Volume 3: European Culture from the Renaissance to the Modern Era. This report is based on the translator’s translation of Chapter 5 of Volume 3. In Chapter 5, the authors present before us the rich history of European fashion.This report is comprised of four parts, including task description, process description, case study and conclusion. The report discusses the characteristics and classification of fashion terms. The report focuses on, through examples the translation of fashion terms, the translation techniques of fashion terms including transliteration, addition and omission, adding footnotes and annotations in the translated version where necessary. For example, many fashion terms are derived from an anthroponym or a toponym and their translation is discussed in detail in the part of case study. Through this project, on one hand, the translator hopes to improve the translation skills, and learn more about translation strategies. On the other hand, the translator hopes the translation will introduce to readers new reading materials and enrich the types of fashion books as well as introduce new elements into China’s fashion industry and make a little contribution to cultural exchanges at home and aboard.