In a recent column, New York Times Fashion Editor Vanessa Friedman responded to a woman asking for advice on finding a lightweight jacket for travel that wasn't as stuffy as a blazer nor as casual as a sweater. Friedman pointed her to one of the latest sartorial crossbreeds, a coverup with the silhouette and details of a traditional button-down shirt, but made of a thicker material more akin to a jacket. The name of this bastard offspring of a shirt and a jacket? A shacket, of course.
The term is the one of the latest in the long line of hybrid words that trace their lineage back to Shakespeare, but were given a name by Lewis Carroll. In "Through the Looking Glass," Alice recites the poem "Jabberwocky," whose first line is "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves." Confused as to its meaning, she asks Humpty Dumpty to explain: "Well, 'slithy' means ‘lithe and slimy.' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word." Perhaps ironically, the term "portmanteau" is a portmanteau itself, combining the French words "porter" (carry) with "manteau" (cloak). From there it's a straight line to frenemy (friend + enemy), glamping (glamorous+ camping) and romcom (romance + comedy).
While combining two words to form a new one whose meaning borrows from both started centuries ago, it's an accelerating growth industry. As we search for ever more efficient ways of communicating, new terms are formed that fill our previously unmet linguistic needs. Indeed, some portmanteaus have become so ingrained in our language that we forget (if we ever knew) that they were made of component parts in the first place. There's newscast (news + broadcast), stash (store and cache) and popsicle (pop + icicle). And while metaverse, one of the newest, seems a fairly obvious mashup of meta and universe, most don't realize that its underpinning is as well: internet is a portmanteau made from interconnected and network.
But back to that shacket. Fashion is essentially defined by combining and twisting existing items to construct new ones. Whether it's adding a strip of silk to a collar or a piece of denim to a pocket, the essence of clothing design is a mashup to create something unique. Most often it's toying around at the margins, accessorizing or tweaking the basics. But every now and again you get (to use an analogy near and dear to my stomach) a chocolate and peanut butter moment, and that makes it ripe for a new word.
In those cases the resulting Frankenstein-ian creation needs a name that reflects its origins. Hence you get a tankini, a combination of a tank top and a bikini. Likewise combine shorts and a skirt, and you get skorts. And then there's the combo that is not a curiosity but an entire industry. All those yoga pants and tracks suits worn not to the gym but to go out and about have turned the athleisure segment into a $411 billion market and growing.
Not all combos nor their names have quite the same mainstream acceptance. Indeed, while I have a pair of open footwear I wear in warmer weather I have never called them mandals (man + sandals). In the winter my wife loves her mittens that have flaps she can pull back to reveal individual fingers underneath, but not once have I ever heard her refer to them as glittens (gloves + mittens). And I confess to not ever knowingly seeing a pair of shoots (shoes + boots), whorts (winter + shorts) or a blurt (blouse + skirt). That's not to say they don't exist, but are elusive in the real world. And even if I did see them, I doubt I would use their "proper" name. More likely, just as if I were to see a Yeti, I would probably say "What the hell is that?"
Call them what you will, but jorts, shackets and jeggings are here to stay. Like infotainment, McMansions and workaholics, their names neatly encapsulate what they are even if they don't automatically roll off the tongue. True, it took motorcade, brunch and bionic a while to become "real" words. But if I see a guy with tight trousers, while I may call them lots of things, but don't expect me to go with meggings.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford will not be wearing a mankini. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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