ready-to-wear, a. (and n.) orig. U.S.
Also ready-for-wear.
[f. ready a. 16 d.]
1. Of clothing: = ready-made a. 2, 4.
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 276/1 (heading) Ready to wear clothing. 1905 Daily Chron. 27 Feb. 8/3 A more exclusive type of ready-to-wear hat is the..sailor turban, toque, or narrow boat shape. 1930 Times 17 Mar. 9/4 The ready-to-wear sections bring the new styles within the reach of modern purses... A new spring catalogue giving illustrations of their ready-for-wear clothes has been prepared. 1953 Manch. Guardian Weekly 30 July 7/1 They..announced the premature birth of Neiman-Marcus as ‘the South's finest and only exclusive women's ready-to-wear shop’. 1977 M. Sokolinsky tr. R. Merle's Virility Factor xvi. 315 She..had skillfully managed a ready-to-wear business. 1981 Country Life 12 Feb. 414/2 The ready-to-wear collections for spring and summer. |
2. as n. (An article of) ready-made clothing. Chiefly pl.
| 1923 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 503/2 There was a young person, looking quite the little man in a suit of ready-to-wears. 1973 ‘J. Ashford’ Double Run iii. 21 His clothes had the hangdog look of cheap ready-to-wears which had had a hard life. 1974 Country Life 3/10 Jan. 54/3 He has private clients, as well as selling ready-to-wear in boutiques. 1977 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) 13 Apr. 14/8 A vice-president of Bloomingdales..commented that the ready-to-wear is wonderful for the film industry. |