clothes horse
- noun
- /kloʊðz hɔrs/
- Informal
:
fashionista
- Many people consider him a clothes horse.
Examples
-
He became known as a clothes horse after appearing in several fashion magazines.
-
My sister is a real clothes horse and always knows the latest trends.
-
Although she is a clothes horse, she also values comfort in her outfits.
-
She is a real clothes horse!
-
Every time she goes shopping, it is clear that she is a clothes horse with a keen eye for the latest trends.
-
As a stylist, he is known as a clothes horse who always wears the most fashionable outfits.
-
At the party, everyone admired Maria, who clearly is a clothes horse, always dressed to impress.
Synonyms
11
3.9
A person who pays attention to what they wear
9
4.9
A person who loves fashion and follows or sets new styles
1
8.6
A man who cares a lot about his clothes and how he looks
1
6.5
A person who cares a lot about clothes and follows the latest styles
1
7.2
A person who always follows the newest clothes styles, even when it costs money or comfort
1
9.9
A person, often a woman, who likes very decorated clothes
How Fashionable
Surface Forms
Morphology
clothes + horse
The literal constituents 'clothes' + 'horse' point to an animal or an object for holding clothes (and historically the term refers to a drying rack), so the figurative sense 'a person who is very interested in fashionable clothes' is a metaphorical extension rather than a transparent composition. This shift is unpredictable for an average B1 learner who knows the words but has not seen the idiom, and equivalent constructions are not universally paralleled across languages, making the expression opaque.
Etymology
Clothes horse for a person comes from that same image: someone who always shows off outfits was compared to a frame that displays clothes, a 'horse' that carries them. So the phrase now means 'someone very interested in fashion'.