Having worked as a translator since 2010, translation is my bread and butter – and a profession I truly love.
But recently, while translating a product brochure for a fashion client in France, I found myself stepping into detective mode, channelling my inner “Sherlock Holmes” to solve a linguistic mystery!
In this blog post, I’ll share my experience dealing with texts written by non-native English speakers and how I managed to solve linguistic “mysteries” through some… detective work.
The Mysterious Case of the “Wallet Skirt”
Here’s the context.
Recently, I was working on a translation project for a trendy French fashion brand. Having worked with this client for nearly two years, I’d become fairly familiar with their writing style: their English copy is often penned by French writers who aren’t native speakers, which means it’s not uncommon to stumble across some “unusual” terms.
Most of the time, I can piece together the intended meaning without too much trouble. But this time, one term stopped me in my tracks: “wallet skirt”!
Now, I’ve been translating fashion content for well over a decade. I’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the industry – Net-A-Porter, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dunhill – and I’ve come across my fair share of niche terminology.
But “wallet skirt”?
That one threw me!
I checked the term against the product picture in the brochure, but it still didn’t quite make sense.
Obviously, the next step was to consult Prof Google, but neither the main search results nor the image results gave me any meaningful clues…
It was pretty obvious by this point that “wallet skirt” was, most likely, a mistranslation of a French term!
So, I decided that it was time to play detective.
Playing Detective: Tracing the Term Back to French
Disclaimer: this was not the first time I had to play detective when translating a text written by non-native writers! My strategy?
To “reverse-engineer” the text.
How?
Open Google Translate, type in the word “wallet skirt” in English, and translate it back to French to see if it gave me any clues.
According to Google Translate, “wallet skirt” is “jupe portefeuille”.
I then Googled “jupe portefeuille” and went straight to the images tab – all the skirts displayed here had something in common. They’re what are known as “wrap skirts”!
Voila. Everything clicked.
In French fashion terminology, “jupe portefeuille” refers to a type of skirt commonly referred to as “wrap skirt” in English fashion terminology. In this instance, the writer most likely translated “jupe portefeuille” literally, thus coining the term “wallet skirt”.
Mystery solved:
Wallet Skirt = jupe portefeuille = Wrap Skirt = 裹身裙!
A less experienced or “lazier” translator might have just translated “wallet skirt” as 钱包半身裙/ 钱包式半身裙/ 钱包裙 (yes, it does sound pretty ridiculous in Chinese too)... They might think, well, it’s not my fault if the source text is incorrect, is it?
But this approach would have resulted in an inaccurate translation that would confuse the client and, crucially, the target audience (customers who might be interested in buying a “wrap skirt”!). So, with a little detective work, I was able to deliver a translation that was accurate and actually made sense in “fashion speak”.
This experience was a reminder that translation often requires problem-solving skills as well as linguistic skills. Sometimes, this means being curious, asking the right questions, and even putting your detective hat on!
Work With a Fashion Translation Specialist
I hope this “detective story” was illuminating and gave you a unique insight into the day-to-day work of a translator 🙂
Need help navigating tricky fashion translations? With years of experience working with top fashion companies, I’ll ensure your copy is accurate, culturally sensitive, and resonates with your target audience. Contact me today to see how I can help!
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