"I'm awesome because I am not afraid to fall,
nor ashamed to stumble.
Because I never wanted to be beautiful,
and I never pretended to be."

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I pulled a James Franco!

Watch before you read my babbling...
The other day I was video chatting with a friend of mine who is in Manhattan for the Fashion Week festivities and of course our whole convo was about the awesomeness of the all the shows in general- including that of Milano and Paris. I then decided to talk about a certain show (which I will not state) and right as I was mid sentence I was totally called out on my mispronunciation of the name. Unknowing that I had made a mistake (I had beeen pronouncing it this way for years) I repeated it, she laughed, corrected me, I left confused. There was no way I had messed up. But since she graduated from Parsons and has worked in a Fashion PR company for awhile now, I knew I was in the wrong. Damn it. I shrugged it off non-chalantly in an effort to hide my huge embarrassment. Katrina is waay up there in the upper echelons of fashion greatness and butchering a name infront of her was like using a long ass word, just cause you had seen it somewhere and it sounded smart, incorrectly in front of an English professor. Yup, I epically failed. So after our skype sesh, I downed a beer, and then I started to think about the posibility of unconsciously mispronouncing other fashion labels. I always thought I was pretty damn solid in that department but just to make sure I didn't make a mistake again I ventured into the interwebs to try to find something along the lines of "How To Pronounce Fashion Names For Dummies." Two seconds later I found a legit list of the hardest names with the easiest and awesomest phonetics around. Great success [said in a Borat voice]! And after viewing the list I am happy to say that there were only 3 that I was shaky on and only 1 that I royally messed up big time. Another great success. I figured that it'd be best for me to share this sicktastic list because you can never be too sure and I'd also want to save you all from the embarrassment I went through. Plus it just sounds soo badass when you pronounce it correctly... people notice.

Here we go... 
Abaeté: Ah-bye-ah-tay
Agnes B: Ah-ni-ess Beh
Alejandro Ingelmo: Allay-handro In-gel-mo
Alexandre Herchcovitch: Ah-le-zan-dreh Hair-ch-co-vich
Andrew Gn: Andrew Jen (rhymes with “ten”)
Andy Thê-Anh: An-dee Tay-Ann
Anya Hindmarch: Ahn-ya Heind-march
Arthur Mendonça: Ar-thur Men-doe-sa
Badgley Mischka: Badge-lee Meesh-ka
Balmain: Bal-mah
Bottega Veneta: Bo-tega Ven-e-ta
Bulgari: Ball-gah-ree
Burberry Prorsum: Bur-bur-ree Pror-some
Carolina Herrera: Caro-leena Hair-era
Cesare Paciotti: Che-sah-ray Pah-cho-tee
Chaiken: Chay-ken
Christian Lacroix: La-Kwa
Christian Louboutin: Loo-boo-tin (“tin” rhymes with the French word “vin”)
Diane von Furstenberg: Fur-sten-berg (pronounced as spelled)
Dolce & Gabbana: Dole-ch-aye Ga-bon-na
Dries Van Noten: Drees Van Know-ten
Ermenegildo Zegna: Er-men-a-geel-do Zen-ya
Etienne Aigner: Eh-tee-yen On-yay
Gareth Pugh: Gareth Pew
Giles Deacon: Jy-els Dee-kin
Givenchy: Jee-von-shee
Giambattista Valli: Gee-ahm-battista Valley
Hedi Slimane: Eddy Sli-mahn
Hermès: Air-mez
Hervé Léger: Air-vay Lay-jay
James Perse: James Perse (as in a lady’s purse, not ‘pierce your ear’)
Joeffer Caoc: Joe-fur Kay-ock
Junya Watanabe: Joon-ya Wah-tah-nah-bay
Lambertson Truex: Lam-bert-son Tru-ex
Lanvin: Lon-vin (“vin” also rhymes with the French word for “wine”)
L’Wren Scott: Le-ren Skot
Loewe: Low-ev-ay
Louis Vuitton: Loo-ee Voo-ee-ton
Madame Gres: Madame Gray
Marchesa: Mar-kay-sa
Mainbocher: Maynbo-shay
Moschino: Mo-ski-no
Monique Lhullier: Mo-neek Loo-lee-ay
Narciso Rodriguez: Nar-siss-so Ro-dree-gez
Nicolas Ghesquière: Ni-co-la Guess-ki-air
Olivier Theyskens: Oli-vier Tay-skins
Pierre Cardin: Pee-air Car-dain
Proenza Schouler: Pro-enza Skool-er
Ralph Lauren: Ralph Lauren (as in Lauren the girl’s name, not Sophia Loren)
Rei Kawakubo: Ray Kah-wah-koo-bo
Rodarte: Ro-dar-tay
6267: Six-two-six-seven (not Sixty-two-sixty-seven)
Sonia Rykiel: Sonia Ree-kee-eel
Sophia Kokosalaki: So-fee-a Ko-ko-sah-lah-kee
Thakoon: Ta-koon
Thierry Mugler: Tee-air-ree Moog-lay
Tibi: Tbi (not Tee-bee)
Tocca: Toe-ka
Versace: Ver-sah-chee
Vionnet: Vee-oh-nay
Yohji Yamamoto: Yo-jee Ya-ma-mo-to
Yves Saint Laurent: Eve San Lor-ron
Zac Posen: Poe-zen

Now after viewing this there is no excuse for anyone to fuck up their name game. Do what you have to do - print it out and put it up on your wall or make flashcards, whatever - just learn them.

1 comment:

Skinny Suspenders said...

This is awesome. I've always wondered if there was a list out there. Great blog!

ATTN:
All images/videos/blahblahblah that appear on the site are copyright by their awesome owner and THE FSC claims no credit nor ownership for them, just mad love and appreciation.