After a fashion

a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, socializing, etc.:
the latest fashion in dresses.
conventional usage in dress, manners, etc., especially of polite society, or conformity to it:
the dictates of fashion; to be out of fashion.
manner; way; mode:
in a warlike fashion.
the make or form of anything:
he liked the fashion of the simple, st-rdy furniture.
a kind; sort:
all fashions of people make up the world.
obsolete, .
obsolete. act or process of making.
to give a particular shape or form to; make:
the cavemen fashioned tools from stones.
to accommodate; adjust; adapt:
doctrines fashioned to the varying hour.
shipbuilding. to bend (a plate) without preheating.
obsolete. to contrive; manage.
after / in a fashion, in some manner or other or to some extent; in a makeshift, unskillful, or unsatisfactory way:
he’s an artist after a fashion.
noun

style in clothes, cosmetics, behaviour, etc, esp the latest or most admired style
(as modifier): a fashion magazine

(modifier) (esp of accessories) designed to be in the current fashion, but not necessarily to last

manner of performance; mode; way: in a striking fashion
(in combination): crab-fashion

a way of life that revolves around the activities, dress, interests, etc, that are most fashionable
shape, appearance, or form
sort; kind; type
after a fashion, in a fashion

in some manner, but not very well: i mended it, after a fashion
of a low order; of a sort: he is a poet, after a fashion

after the fashion of, like; similar to
of fashion, of high social standing
verb (transitive)
to give a particular form to
to make suitable or fitting
(obsolete) to contrive; manage
n.

c.1300, “shape, manner, mode,” from old french façon (12c.) “face, appearance; construction, pattern, design; thing done; beauty; manner, characteristic feature,” from latin factionem (nominative factio) “group of people acting together,” literally “a making or doing,” from facere “to make” (see fact-tious).

sense of “prevailing custom” is from late 15c.; that of “style of attire” is from 1520s.

to call a fashion wearable is the kiss of death. no new fashion worth its salt is wearable. [eugenia sheppard, “new york herald tribune,” jan. 13, 1960]

fashion plate (1851) originally was “full-page picture in a popular magazine showing the prevailing or latest style of dress,” in reference to the typographic “plate” from which it was printed. transfered sense of “well-dressed person” had emerged by 1920s.

v.

early 15c.; see fashion (n.). related: fashioned; fashioning.
also,
after a sort
. somehow or other; not very well, as in
john can read music, after a fashion
, or
he managed to paint the house after a sort
. the first phrase, in which
fashion
means “a manner of doing something,” has been so used since the mid-1800s, when it replaced
in a fashion
. the variant dates from the mid-1500s. also see

in a way
(somehow) or other

see:

after a fashion
in fashion