Clothes is one of the few topics where the material is already in the room. Every student is wearing five or six things they chose this morning for reasons they have not said out loud, and most classes never mention any of it.
So these 30 clothes and fashion discussion questions move outward. What is in the room, what is in the closet at home, what is on the street, what is expected at work, what people wore before us, and what it all cost. Each set has a talk rule, because describing a sweater is a vocabulary exercise and arguing about what a sweater means is a conversation. The levels climb from A2 to C1, and each set takes 10 to 15 minutes.
One warning before you start. Sets 2 and 6 ask students about what they own and what they paid, and in a class where money is uneven that can land badly. Nothing in either set needs an expensive answer, and a rough or invented price works just as well. Keep the whole topic about clothes, not bodies: an outfit is a choice, and a student's size or looks are never part of the answer.
The six sets at a glance | # | Set | Level | Talk rule on the worksheet | | 1 | In the Room | A2-B1 | Not a Top: Say the Exact Word | | 2 | In the Wardrobe | A2-B1 | Where Is It Now? | | 3 | On the Street | B1-B2 | Claim or Verdict? | | 4 | In the Office | B1-B2 | Say It Out Loud | | 5 | In the Past | B2-C1 | One Sentence We'd All Sign | | 6 | On the Label | B2-C1 | Cost per Wear |
|
Free · printable PDF · 7 pagesClothes Conversation CardsAll 30 questions below as hang tags to cut out, one page per set and numbered like this post. Every page also has the worksheet for that set's talk rule, so a student can work alone or in pairs. Print only the set you need.1In the RoomA2-B1 · page 2
Not a Top: Say the Exact Word2In the WardrobeA2-B1 · page 3
Where Is It Now?3On the StreetB1-B2 · page 4
Claim or Verdict?4In the OfficeB1-B2 · page 5
Say It Out Loud5In the PastB2-C1 · page 6
One Sentence We'd All Sign6On the LabelB2-C1 · page 7
Cost per WearDownload the free PDFUS Letter |
Set 1: In the Room
What students have on right now. The easiest set to answer, which is why the rule is about guessing, not describing.
1of 6A2-B1Pairs10 minFree printable · page 2 In the Room Questions 1 to 5 · activity: Not a Top: Say the Exact Word - What are you wearing right now, item by item?
- Which of those did you choose this morning, and which did you just put on?
- What is the oldest thing you have on?
- What would you change about today's outfit if you could?
- What do you wear when you want a day to go well?
The move- Pairs. The speaker answers a card, naming every item with the exact word.
- After each answer the partner guesses why the speaker chose it, and the speaker confirms it or puts them right: No, actually, it was the only clean one.
- On the worksheet, the partner writes the guess down before hearing the real reason.
| What to look at Insist on the exact word, because the thing is right in front of you. Not a top but a fleece, a turtleneck, a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Say top six times and nothing has been learned. The worksheet prints a word map that crosses out the general words for exactly this reason. |
| Before you start If your class wears a uniform or everybody works in the same office, question 1 dies on the spot. Swap it for what they wore on the weekend and leave the other four as they are. |
| Free printable · page 2Page 2: the five tags, the Not a Top word map (from a top to turtleneck, cardigan and fleece) and a My Outfit Today table with a column for the partner's guess.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
Before set 1 Guessing why pulls the present continuous out of a class without a grammar box appearing anywhere, but only if the words are there. For a beginner group, the Clothes Vocabulary worksheet teaches 14 garments, from cardigan to raincoat, with the American and British pairs like pants and trousers. Winter Wardrobe is the full hour after it: garment vocabulary, the capsule wardrobe trend, and students designing a wardrobe for their teacher. Clothes VocabularyA1A2ProWorksheetSee the Pro lesson →Winter WardrobeA1A2ProSee the Pro lesson → |
Set 2: In the Wardrobe
The closet at home. Every question here has an object in it, and the rule is to follow that object.
2of 6A2-B1Pairs10 minFree printable · page 3 In the Wardrobe Questions 6 to 10 · activity: Where Is It Now? - What have you owned for years and never worn?
- What do you wear until it falls apart?
- What did you buy because another person had it?
- What is in your closet that no longer fits the life you have?
- What would you never throw away?
The move- Pairs. The speaker answers a card.
- The partner cannot move on until they have asked two follow-up questions: Where is it now? and Why haven't you gotten rid of it?
- The worksheet turns each answer into one sentence of story in the past simple.
| Why it works Asking what became of the object pushes the answer into the past simple and usually into a short story. Without the rule, students answer in four words and wait: A jacket. Never worn. |
| Before you start Answer question 6 yourself first. Naming a thing you bought and never wore gives the class permission, and question 6 is the one students are most tempted to be vague about. |
| Free printable · page 3Page 3: the five tags, the Where Is It Now? table and a four-line past simple check (bought, wore, gave, kept) with the answers upside down.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
Fashion Tips is the free hour after this set (A2-B1): what people wear and what their clothes say about them, with the language for giving compliments and describing an outfit.
Set 3: On the Street
Other people's clothes. Students at this level can already describe an outfit. Arguing about what an outfit means is the part they cannot do yet.
3of 6B1-B2Pairs10 minFree printable · page 4 On the Street Questions 11 to 15 · activity: Claim or Verdict? - Describe an outfit you saw this week and still remember.
- Describe what a colleague or classmate wore the last time you saw them.
- Describe what people in your city tend to wear.
- Describe what you would put on to be taken seriously.
- Describe an outfit that told you something true about the person in it.
The move- Pairs. The speaker describes an outfit from the card.
- The partner's job is to make a claim about the person, not about the clothes. She plans her week. He was in a hurry.
- The speaker rules the claim fair or unfair. The disagreement is the activity.
| What to look at Push for detail before any claim is allowed. A partner cannot interpret dark clothes, and can say a great deal about a black coat with the collar up and sneakers that have clearly been walked in. |
| Before you start Claims drift into compliments, and nobody disagrees with a compliment. The worksheet starts with a two-minute sort (claim about the person or verdict on the clothes?) so the difference lands before anybody plays. |
| Free printable · page 4Page 4: the five tags, the Claim or Verdict? sort with the answers upside down, and a table for the detail, the claim and the verdict on it.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
Set 4: In the Office
The rules nobody writes down. Every workplace and every school has them, and students rarely get to say them in English.
4of 6B1-B2Pairs10 minFree printable · page 5 In the Office Questions 16 to 20 · activity: Say It Out Loud - What are the unwritten clothing rules where you work or study?
- Who would be spoken to for breaking them, and who would not?
- What do you wear at work that you would never choose outside it?
- Should a company be allowed to tell staff what to wear?
- What has changed about work clothes in the last ten years?
The move- Pairs. The speaker answers a card.
- Every rule has to come out as a sentence a real colleague would say. Not the dress code is smart casual, but I wouldn't come in wearing those.
- The worksheet practices the switch on four policy lines first, then collects the class's own unwritten rules.
| Why it works Turning a written policy into something a colleague would say out loud is exactly the skill a B1-B2 student needs at work, and almost never practices. |
| Before you start Question 17 is the sharp one, and students often see the answer as they say it. Give it room. If the whole class works in one place, ask them to answer about a previous job, or every rule will be one sentence everybody agrees on. |
| Free printable · page 5Page 5: the five tags, four policy lines to rewrite (with possible answers upside down) and a table for your class's unwritten rules: who gets spoken to and who gets away with it.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
Question 18 is about the clothes students would never choose outside work, and How Fashion Affects Our Brain (B2-C1) is the research behind it: wearing a doctor's white coat can make people more attentive. History of Fashion (B2-C1) is the wider version of question 20, from the 1940s to the 2020s, and uses it to teach negative inversion.
Set 5: In the Past
What people wore before us. The first set for groups, and the first where the answer has to be agreed, not just given.
5of 6B2-C1Groups of 3 or 415 minFree printable · page 6 In the Past Questions 21 to 25 · activity: One Sentence We'd All Sign - What did people once wear that we now find alarming?
- How far would a reasonable person go to look the way they want?
- Who decides what counts as well dressed, and how did they get the job?
- Is anything worn today going to look absurd in fifty years?
- Does a country still have a way of dressing, or has that gone?
The move- Groups of three or four.
- After each card the group writes one sentence that every member would sign, and all of them initial it.
- If they cannot agree, they write what the disagreement is about instead. Both outcomes are useful, and the second is usually the better one.
| Why it works Hunting for a sentence a group will accept is much harder than offering an opinion, and upper levels rarely get asked to do it. |
| Before you start Ban It depends on the situation. Groups reach for sentences so vague that agreeing costs nothing, and banning that one phrase changes the quality of everything that follows. Put the agreed sentences on the board, and by question 25 the group can see whether its five are consistent. |
| Free printable · page 6Page 6: the five tags, the signing sheet with the banned phrase on top, and phrase banks for proposing, narrowing a sentence and naming a disagreement.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
The hours behind questions 21 and 23 Fatal Fashion is the hour behind question 21: corsets, crinoline skirts, mercury hats and foot binding, and the modern habits that still put style above safety. Met Gala 2024 answers question 23 with one night of best and worst outfits, and the phrases for saying an outfit missed the mark without being unkind. Fatal FashionB2C1ProSee the Pro lesson →Met Gala 2024B2C1ProSee the Pro lesson → |
Set 6: On the Label
The price tag. New in this version of the post, and the set for groups that want to argue about fast fashion.
6of 6B2-C1Groups of 3 or 415 minFree printable · page 7 On the Label Questions 26 to 30 · activity: Cost per Wear - Would you rather own ten cheap T-shirts or two expensive ones? Why?
- Have you ever bought something knowing it would fall apart soon?
- What is the most you have paid for one piece of clothing, and was it worth it?
- Is buying secondhand a way to save money, a way to help the planet, or just a style?
- Who should pay the hidden cost of cheap clothes: brands or shoppers?
The move- Groups of three or four.
- Before the cards, each student adds three items to the cost-per-wear table: one they wear all the time, one they almost never wear and one they regret. Price divided by times worn.
- Then the rule: every opinion needs a number. Cheap clothes are bad is a slogan. I paid $8 and wore it twice is an argument.
| Why it works The numbers stop the set from becoming four people agreeing that fast fashion is a shame. A $200 coat at 50 cents a wear and a $60 dress worn once make a case nobody saw coming, and the group has to deal with it. |
| Before you start Money is the sensitive part, so say at the start that a rough price is fine and an invented one is fine too. Question 30 is the real debate: give it the last five minutes, and ask each group to name who should pay. |
| One-to-one Do the table together with your student's three items and three of your own. Six numbers are enough for question 26. |
| Free printable · page 7Page 7: the five tags, the cost-per-wear calculator with a worked example, a six-row table and phrase banks for numbers, judging a buy and answering question 30.Download the free PDFUS Letter |
|
Clothes Conversation CardsThe hang tags and worksheets for all six sets in one free PDF, page by page in the order of this post.Download the free PDF |
Mistakes your students will make
Teacher's reference Slips to listen for in clothes conversations | Students say | Better | | I put on a blue shirt today. | I'm wearing a blue shirt today. | | Put on is the action of dressing. For what you have on now, use wear in the present continuous. Set 1. | | This jeans are too tight. | These jeans are too tight. | | Jeans, pants and shorts are plural, so these and those. The This, That, These, Those worksheet drills it in a shop. | | My clothes is old. | My clothes are old. | | Clothes is always plural. For one item, say a piece of clothing or name it. | | I bought it two years before. | I bought it two years ago. | | Ago counts back from now. Before needs another past moment. Set 2. | | This color fits you. | This color suits you. | | Fit is about size. Suit is about whether it looks good on you. Set 3. | | It costed me 50 dollars. | It cost me 50 dollars. | | Cost is the same in the present, past and past participle. Set 6. |
|
Clothes and fashion lessons by level
| Level | Lesson | What students do |
| A2-B1 | Fashion Tips Free | Discuss what clothes say about us, give compliments and describe outfits |
| A1-A2 | Clothes Vocabulary | Worksheet: 14 garments, American and British pairs, packing for a rainy weekend |
| A1-A2 | This, That, These, Those | Worksheet: near or far, one or many, practiced in a shop |
| A1-A2 | Winter Wardrobe | Dress for the cold, then design a wardrobe for the teacher |
| A1-A2 | London Street Style | Watch a street interview and describe outfits with the present continuous |
| B1-B2 | Spring Fashion Trends | Follow an influencer's three outfits and talk about what's in style |
| B2-C1 | Met Gala 2024 | Judge the best and worst outfits of one night, kindly |
| B2-C1 | How Fashion Affects Our Brain | Discuss why a white coat can make people more attentive |
| B2-C1 | History of Fashion | Trace fashion from the 1940s to the 2020s and practice negative inversion |
| B2-C1 | Fatal Fashion | Read about trends that put style above safety, then and now |
| B2-C1 | Why We Buy Luxury | Explain the real reasons people pay more |
| B2-C1 | AI in Fashion | Debate how AI is changing styling and marketing |
Looking for the same format on another topic? Our 30 food discussion questions and 30 daily routine conversation questions come with a free card deck too.
