Intercultural mediation has become essential for relationships between people. If language is how humans communicate and this communication takes place in different languages, intercultural mediation is the tool that connects these languages through translation. As a result, today the majority of products must be localized for different markets, regardless of where they originate from, in order for people from different cultures to access these goods and services. Translation has thus undergone specialization since the outset, and is now a well-regarded professional activity which is gradually gaining the value it deserves in accordance with the work performed. As we know, translation no longer consists of finding direct linguistic matches between language systems at the word or sentence level. The focus of modern translation, and the needs it caters to, means that the localized products must meet a series of localization requirements, which include suitability for the final purpose of the materials, correct terminology and grammar, creating fruitful partnerships between those needing language services and those providing them. As such, we can see that today’s translation agencies and freelance professionals strive to provide clients with specialized services. In other words, they ensure that the person responsible for completing the translation has specific knowledge of a subject field or has processed documents on the same topic, thereby ensuring that the final product is of high quality and meets the aforementioned parameters. This need for specialization has become apparent in technical and legal fields. This is why there are many professionals who focus on legal content or work in a specific sector, such as the biological, medical, biotechnological, engineering sectors, among others. However, there is a belief that specialized language services only affect these areas, pushing other areas of our daily life into the background. Nevertheless, there are also interlinguistic needs in these areas that require profiles with suitable training (for example, in this article we discuss translation in the food industry). Is it not the case that we often view localized art (dubbing and subtitling for films and series, book translation, subtitling for songs/video clips, etc.)? As we discussed above, the opportunity to connect that is provided by intercultural mediation is an essential aspect of our time and the translation industry is responsible for meeting all these needs and providing its services to the highest standard.
In this article, we want to focus on another sector that is becoming increasingly relevant in the translation market and has very specific requirements. We are talking about translation in the fashion industry.
So, what do we mean by “fashion industry”? This sector includes manufacturing, distribution, marketing, retail, advertising and promoting all types of clothing. These cover a wide range of items as they may be aimed at a specific sex, a particular age group (e.g. children’s fashion), a certain type of clothing, as well as the use of different materials, aesthetic concepts, levels of sophistication and display methods.
The fashion industry is very large since it involves all kinds of professionals at different levels. These include clothing manufacturers, designers, models, publicists, salespeople, event organizers, etc. In short, there are many profiles that are interested in localizing content related to the fashion world, especially because business operations in this sector tend to seek international exposure. To do this, they need specialized language services. So, what type of content do they usually translate?
The fashion industry covers a wide range of materials. First of all, there is the translation of texts on textile know-how and fashion releases, which are found in dressmaking handbooks and literature specializing in this topic. They are texts of varying difficulty but they include a wide variety of terms that must be understood and accurately reproduced in order to deliver a quality translation. Moreover, this industry also requires creative translations that hold the public’s attention, as well as that of potential clients. This is the case with clothing catalogs, as well as website and brand portal localization. Taking this specialization one step further, it is important to note that the fashion industry sometimes turns to transcreation services to develop internationalization strategies for their products and ensure that the most suitable decisions are made when launching a product on a foreign market, especially large advertising campaigns. This means that fashion translators do not have one single profile. The translator must know the field of specialty, but must also be able to reproduce the effect of the source materials, through these communication channels, and foster interest among the target audience. Along the way, translators face a number of challenges inherent to this industry.
Firstly, the large number of foreign words found in this sector must be considered. The fashion world moves so quickly that sometimes there is not enough time to create and standardize a word in different local languages. Therefore, it is common for target cultures to adopt words directly from the most characteristic languages of this industry: English and French. This is why the translator must study the aim of each project, research these terms and decide whether they should be localized into the target language or kept in the source language. They must also decide whether to differentiate them using italics or standardize them with normal type. In these cases, the translator’s work is very important as each translation may set a standard. Likewise, another major aspect is that of localizing extra-linguistic factors, such as sizes. When a language strategy is considered for clothing distribution, it is important to study whether the sizing varies from culture to culture. This means that decisions must be made on how this information will be presented to the target audience.
If we can bring all these aspects together, we will be able to provide competitive and quality translations that are highly accurate, ultimately enriching the fashion materials that are published in a target language.
Image reference:
https://mojly.com/35-pics-weird-fashioned-people-5025/weird-fashion-clothes-funny-hilarious-pics-catwalk-fashion-weird-catwalk-fashion-weird-catwalk-1/
