TEST 51
Questions 1-7. Match the following headings (A-H) to the texts (Q1-Q7).
Note: There is one extra heading which you do not need to use.
HEADINGS:
A) Fashion magazines
B) Fashionable clothes for all
C) Preparation of a collection
D) Conflicting interests
E) Fashion houses
F) Personal style
G) Successful career
H) Fashion as the spirit of an age
Q1.
One of the most famous fashion designers of the 20th century was Gianni Versace.
At the age of eighteen,
he began working for his mother and quickly learned the skills of dressmaking and design. By 1982 he was
incredibly famous and had won the first of many awards. His clothes were popular with famous musicians,
such as Elton John and George Michael. He was asked
to design costumes for ballets, shows and concerts.
Versace died in 1997, at the age of fifty.
Q2.
The great dressmaking firms are usually directed by outstanding dress designers, such as Schiaparelli,
Balenciaga, Molyneux and Chanel. They are
in Paris, London, Rome, Florence and New York, but by far
the most important are French ones. This is because France has nearly always set the fashion in clothes.
Twice a year, in
January and July, they present their “collections”, that is, their displays of model clothes,
which suggest the ideas on which fashion will be based in the following spring and autumn.
Q3.
Some months before the show the fabric manufacturers bring their materials to the fashion house, and the
designer makes his selection.
At the same time, he makes hundreds of sketches from which new fashion
“lines” will eventually develop. If the original idea proves a success, a “model”
is made in materials of
suitable texture and colour. Accessories - hat, gloves, jewellery, etc. - are added. After
months of hard
work the “models” are finally ready for presentation.
Q4.
Since the beginning of the 20th century ready-made copies of very expensive and fashionable models have
been sold in shops. Clothing manufacturers developed a method by which simplified versions of a “model”
could be reproduced in large quantities and sold to a much wider market. They employ their own designers
to adapt “models” so that they can be copied and mass-produced in different sizes.