If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, congratulations, you have a life! If you’re a little too familiar with Pinterest, congratulations, you’re a female. Before I became a Pinner, I didn’t realize how many proper terms I was missing out on. Terms for patterns and colors and even food. Pinterest has taught me a lot, and since I’m a generous and amazing person, I’m going to share my new vocabulary with you. (You might wanna grab a barf bag.)
- Chevron. Formerly known as “zig zag”, chevron is simply a type of design. This pattern has all of a sudden become super popular in clothes, furniture and on basically anything that you can put your mark on. I pondered for a long time about how the word came to be. Like, why couldn’t we just call the pattern zig zag? And then I passed a Chevron and realized that it must be a proper term if a gas station is named after it.
- Ombré. This is definitely a made up word. Ombré is simply a description of one color fading into another color. Commonly used to describe hair color, Pinners have found many ways to overuse their made up term. If there is one word that makes me hate everyone, it’s probably ombré because you can’t avoid sounding like a douche when you say it.
- Emerald, charcoal, and ox blood. Don’t get me wrong, I like to paint with all the colors of the wind just as much as the next girl, but let’s be real. They’re just colors. Can’t we just refer to them as “dark green, dark gray, and dark red”? Like, how hard is that? I guarantee that people will immediately know what you’re talking about and you won’t sound like a pompous ass. How do people even know what ox blood looks like? I feel like I should report the next Pinner who uses the term “ox blood” to PETA or something. Also, I just made a new rule that you can’t say the word emerald unless you actually own an emerald.
- Druzy. Druse or druzy is a coating of fine crystals on a rock surface. I literally just copied that sentence from Wikipedia. Ahh college déjà vu! Why am I using so many French accents in this post? Anyway, druzy jewelry has become very popular and I hate myself for knowing what this term means.
- Chambray. Chambray technically refers to a type of lightweight fabric originating from Chambray, France. If you look closely though, it resembles the look of worn-out denim. I kept seeing denim shirts on Pinterest labeled as “chambray” and I was like “Wtf is chambray?” Why can’t it just be labeled as “shirt”?
- Maxi dresses/skirts. I was aware of this term before my pinning days, but I am constantly reminded of it. Maxi dresses are basically long, billowy dresses that go down to the floor. They make women have the appearance of looking really long and lean. The skirts give the same illusion. I still don’t understand why we can’t just call them “long skirts”.
- Tablescape. This is definitely my least favorite word that I’ve come across on Pinterest. I unfortunately had the pleasure of hearing it before my pinning days on The Food Network. Sandra Lee from Semi-Homemade used to refer to her place settings and centerpieces as “tablescapes” and nothing has made me cringe more. You know what my tablescape looks like? A plate and a fork. The epitome of class.
Well, I feel sick now. Those are all the terms I have for you today. Join me next time if you want to debate on which is better: “Upcycling” or shooting yourself in the foot.
Lily In Canada 