Tonight I went to a very fun college Halloween party. As usual, the ladies were decked out in some very sexy costumes Many of these costumes were made of 'Lack und Leder' (leather and PVC). My mind got to sparking in a czechwards direction and I said to myself: " ženy oděné v laku a kůži jsou velmi krásné!" It seems I'm always better at speaking Czech after having some pivo :twisted: But I'm wondering if that sentence is actually correct ...
Well I'm not sure. "Lak" is varnish or polish in Czech - you can paint over something with it, like wall, furniture or nails... Is it what you wanted to say?
Well, in English, the material I'm speaking of is often, mistakenly, called 'latex' or 'leather', but it's actually a kind of plastic. Sometimes people call it PVC or Vinyl -- but that's not always technically correct either. In German, it's called simply Lack (sometimes Lackleder, but that's only accurate when discussing shoes or handbags). Czech lingerie shops seem to mimic the German terminolgy, for example: "Minišaty z laku, diagonálně rozepínatelné 5ti přezkami." Is there some other way to describe this material in common usage?
These days, PVC clothing is too commonplace to be considered 'kinky' :lol: That's a description best left for latex :twisted:
So, I may have found an answer to my own question 8) On the website www.moda.cz I found the following sentence: "Oblečení bylo vyrobeno z gumy, PVC plastu, kůže a kašmíru." If I'm reading this right, it says "the clothing was made of latex, PVC, leather, and cashmere." So, if I re-frame my original sentence: "ženy oděné v plastu a kůži jsou velmi krásné," does this now make more sense?
Technicaly, "latex" is a material produced by emulsion polymeration, it does not have to have any specific chemical composition, hence so many names like vynil, PVC. "guma" means "rubber" in Czech, but not exactly, in fact it usually means "polybutadiene rubber".
So, are you saying that the word 'Latex' is used in Czech to refer to both 'Latex' Rubber and PVC/Polyurethane clothing? These materials are both generally very shiny, but otherwise quite different. In fact, I don't believe I've ever met someone wearing Latex Rubber clothing -- since it's generally restricted to fetish circles, which I, sadly, have never stumbled into :lol:
No. I think the German term has no equivalent in Czech, hence the confusion with latex clothing (thought I can imagine people calling the material latex as you already pointed out).
I suspected as much. The use of the Czech word 'Lak' to mean Lackbekleidung seems restricted to fashion industry jargon -- at least as far as lingerie dealers are concerned.