How do you pronounce Gareth Pugh, anyway?
You asked and Faran answered (Pugh is said like pew), and then we thought – designers are difficult, and maybe we need a cheat sheet – or else face the fate that Faran once witnessed, when a fashion director heard a potential assistant say “Ralph Lauren” and never asked them back.
For designers with French names, remember that in Francais you say “er” as “ay” so: Gaulti-ay is a couturi-ay.
In French you don’t pronounce the “s” at the end of a word, so Comme des Garcons is com day gar-sohn, Yves is Eve, Hermes is air-maze (you don’t say the first h at the beginning of a French word), and Rochas was Ro-sha.
And:
Abaete is ah-bye-ah-tay.
It’s Caro-leena Herrera, not Caro-lie-na Herrara.
Nicolas Ghesquiere is Ni-co-la Guess-key-air
Givenchy is jhee-von-shee
Ralph Lauren, like the girl’s name!
Monique Lhuillier is Monique L’oo-li-ay
Christian Louboutin is Christian (with a light n) Loo-boo-tahn
Marchesa is Mar-kay-sa,
Moschino is Mo-ski-no, not moschino like the cherry
Dries van Noten is pronounced Dree-s
Raf Simons is Raff See-mon
Hedi Slimane is Eddy Sli-mahn
Olivier Theyskens is Olivi-ay Tay-skins
Now: can anyone who speaks Japanese tell me how to say Rei Kawakubo? Thanks.
–ANNA FIELDING GRIGGS
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As silly as I feel asking this, how do you pronounce Proenza Schouler? I always missed the part of the Target commercial where they said their name…
i think it is actually JES-key-air!… (lightly combining the last two syllables)
the Schouler is pronounced like
School-er
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s “Pro-en-za Skoo-ler”…
i thought it was Gay-ski-air
With Japanese you usually accent the first syllable instead of the 2nd or 3rd, which is a mistake almost every non-Japanese speaker makes.
So it’s Ray KAH-wah-koo-boh. It sounds peculiar because in Japanese the surname comes before the given name, so the sound seems misplaced in English when the names are switched around.
It’s not.
This is the best post ever. Very informative!
for the vintage-lovers:
courreges = core-rejh
schiaparelli = ska-pa-relly or shap-a-relly
vionnet = vee-oh-nay
now i need someone to tell me how to pronounce Mainbocher
i love you all for this sooo much
Thank you! One of my top 10 pet peeves is people who say Ralph Laur-enn as if it makes them high class by saying it. Cmon, he’s not from some spectacular foreign land, he’s a nice Jewish boy from New York!
Mainbocher=Main-bo-shay
I went to a Hamish Bowles lecture and he said “Main-bo-shay, or to most people, Mainbocker” hahahah
LOVE this thanks! how do you pronounce Tibi? I’ve heard that its “Tie – Bee”
Hermes would actually be “er-mehz.”
The accent grave (the one pointing to the left) makes it an “eh” sound, instead of the “ay” sound, which an accent egu (pointing right) makes.
That’s funny that you post this because there’s a little snippet in July’s Vogue about how to pronounde Nicholas’ last name. I always thought it was with the G sound and not with the J sound… the article didnt clarify it, of course, but i think i like the G sound better. haha. so thats how ima do it.
And Tibi is pronounced like tv.
To be fair, “Ralph Lau-REN” rolls of the tongue more nicely than “Ralph LAU-ren” which is probably why many people get it wrong.
Also, just because it has always driven me crazy, and I’ve heard people insist on both ways….
Bebe
Bee-Bee or Bay-Bay?
And it’s pronounced GAH-puh, not just GAP.
:D
designage is right. ghesquiere should actually be pronounced “jes-care.” it was in an article in this month’s vogue about the met costume institute ball.
B: Hey, just because he’s a man designing women’s wearing doesn’t mean we should make any assumptions about his sexuality! :)
Thanks to the person who provided insight into Rei Kawakubo’s name. I’ve always said it “Ray”, but in my research online I found some dissenters who insisted it was “Reh-eh” so I thought I’d ask for clarification.
the article didnt really say either way though… god i wish fashion file was still on tv… LETS ASK TIM BLANKS!
Balenciaga???
Nice! One quibble: it’s air-MEZ, to rhyme with the candy Pez. It would be “maze” if the accent on the final “e” went up to the right.
Anna Sui?
Like Chop Suey?
or
Anna Sue (like a country girl with pig tails)?
HELP!
anna swee
Always get confused with Lanvin, how is it really said?
lan-van? i think
balenciaga is the ultimate bitch, i didnt know how to say it until i met someone who worked there. and ghesquiere is said J.
Balenciaga is pronounced: Bah-Len-See-Aw-Gah.
Lanvin: Lahn-Vain.
Just don’t over enunciate the ‘n’s. They’re somewhat silent.
Proenza Schouler: Pro-En-Za Skoo-Ler.
Kevin Aucoin: Keh-Vhyn Oh-Kwan
Narciso Rodriguez: Nar-Siss-O Ro-Dree-Gez.
I’m pretty sure this is how you pronounce them, but I’m not one-hundred-percent.
And how do you pronounce Hussein Chalayan? I think it’s Who-Sane Sha-La-Yan but I’m not sure.
And also is Rodarte pronounced with the e sounding like an accent aigue?
Is it Ro-Dart-Ay or Ro-Darte?
how could you not understand how to pronounce balenciaga?
I swear this must be taken from that Vogue article in 1990something that explained how to pronounce Ungaro.
This post makes me miss the good old days of Style with Elsa Klensch on CNN, who had excellent enunciation.
balenciaga is definitely bah-len-see-ah-gah, not aw-gah, unless you’re from staten island.
and thank you especially for hedi slimane!
As for Rei Kawakubo, in Japanese you don’t really pronouce “ei” like “ay”–it’s more of a prolonged “eh” sound.
To Toni- It’s bee-bee, it’s taken from “To be or not to be”.
I think it’s Ro-DART, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
My secret shame is that I ALWAYS want to say “NarcisCO” instead of “Narciso.” I know it’s wrong. It just comes out.
Ah! Can we finally settle how to properly say the “Vuitton” portion of Louis Vuitton?
You’d be surprised how many times I’ve heard it mangled. Sigh.
re: balenciaga. I’ve heard both ba-len-see-ah-gah and ba-len-chee-ah-gah, so I can understand the confusion.
Maraschino cherries. And I’ve always pronounced it something like Ray-ee.
There’s no way Balenciaga is ba-len-chee-ah-ga. It’s not Italian. Cristobal Balenciaga was a Spainard. Therefore it should be, as said earlier, ba-len-see-ah-gah or, if you want to get technical, ba-len-thee-ah-gah, like you’re lisping in the middle of the word.
“I think it’s Ro-DART, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.”
Rodar-tay, I believe; it’s their mother’s maiden name.
Schiaparelli
Skap-a-rel-li. In this case, the Italian pronunciation of “schia” is a “sk” sound. When you’re at the Nars counter, check out “Skap Pink”.
Ro-dar-tay.
Ba-len-see-ah-ga
I guess I will never really feel confident saying Rei Kawukabo’s name
AFG: haha i didn’t mean it like that! tho there’s no doubt about it :P
Actually “schia” in Italian is pronounced “skYAAH” as opposed to “ska.” The “i” sound is still there. Still rhymes with “ska” though.
So it would be: skYAAHp-a-REL-li
Actually, ‘er’ and ‘é’ are not pronounced ‘ay’ in French – only Americans do that and it sounds hilariously American. In French this sound is pronounced sort of with your lips spread really far apart, like your broadest smile (just to show it in the extreme), which doesn’t work with ‘ay’.
And ‘è’ or ‘ere’ is an e like in ‘entry’.
This website has sound files of all the vowels and some example words containing the particular sound, on the second and third page you find further combinations of vowels: http://www.myteacherinparis.com/alphabet/french-vowels-2.html
Also, I’m pretty sure Ghesquiere is not pronounced ‘j’ but ‘g’ – the ‘gh’ spelling serves the same function as ‘gu’ (as in the English word ‘guess’).
Happy practicing!
I interviewed with Ralph Lauren out of college and the interviewer pronounced it “Lau-wren” repeatedly, leading me to the impression it could be pronounced either way.
courtney, please – bebe is Farsi for Queen
the founder manny is persian
As far as Ralph L goes, read The End of Fashion by Teri Agins they talk all about the Lauren to Law-ren thing there.
Vuitton- “Vii-ton” soft n.
Thanks for the post! I never new how to say Nicolas Ghesquiere! I always just avoided it. :)
i thought vuitton was vwee-ton, but very subtle with the vwee.
great post. here are some more i found in one of my magazines:
Yigel Azrouel
ee-GAHL az-roo-EL
Behnaz Sarafpour
ben-AHZ sah-raf-POOR
Andrew Gn
AN-droo GEN
Proenza Schouler
proh-EN-zuh SKOO-ler
Rodarte
roh-DAHR-tay
Costello Tagliapietra
ko-STEL-oh TAG-lee-uh-pee-AY-trah
Thakoon
tah-KOON
Olivier Theyskens
oh-LIV-ee-ay TEY-skins
any pointers on where the accents on Bottega Veneta go?
pointers for where to get their goods for less than astronomical prices will be asked at a later post