If you don't know your chiffon from your charmeuse, now's the time to get schooled on terms that anyone interested in fashion should know. Familiarity with fashion terms will not only impress your friends—it will help you know what you're getting when you're shopping online.

Today's word: Summery seersucker is a fabulous fabric for warm, humid weather...read on!

Seersucker: is a thin, all-cotton fabric, commonly striped, used to make clothing for spring and summer wear. Seersucker is woven in such a way that some threads bunch together, giving the fabric a wrinkled appearance in places. This feature causes the fabric to be mostly held away from the skin when worn, facilitating improved heat dissipation and air circulation. The wrinkled look also ensures that seersucker clothing will look good even when worn by people working in hot weather. It also means that ironing is not necessary. Seersucker was first used in the United States by the working class but was later adopted by the upper classes. The material became perceived as a staple of attire for the Southern gentleman who wore it in deference to the high heat and humidity of the American South.

Definition of "seersucker" from wikipedia.org.
Photo: Detail of a cotton seersucker pant by Nina Ricci, eluxury.com