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A clothes shop or clothes store is any shop which sells items of ready-made
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
. A small shop which sells expensive or
designer clothing
Designer clothing is expensive luxury clothing considered to be high quality and haute couture for the general public, made by, or carrying the label of, a well-known fashion designer.
Brands
Designer clothing is not always created by the foun ...
may be called a
boutique. A shop that sells clothes for a narrowlyrestricted market such as
school uniforms or
outdoor sports
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activiti ...
may be called an
outfitter.
History
It is not known when the first clothes shops were opened in Europe. Before the era of ready-made clothes, when clothing was made by
tailor
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
s or artisans, shops may have sold second-hand clothing. Some ready-made clothes may have been made in the sixteenth century. The number of clothes shops appears to have risen steadily long before the beginning of large-scale industrial manufacture of clothing in the second half of the nineteenth century.
References
{{reflist, refs=
[Alison Toplis (2011)]
''The Clothing Trade in Provincial England, 1800-1850''
London: Pickering & Chatto Publishers. {{ISBN, 9781848931169.
[Gavin Dudeney, Nick Hockly (2010)]
''Learning English as a Foreign Language for Dummies''
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. {{ISBN, 9780470685877.
Clothing retailers
Sales occupations
Retailers by type of merchandise sold