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, sturdy 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.
Contemporary Examples

Libby Haan has been running Haan Projects since 2010 after spending 15 years working in fashion PR for the most exclusive brands.
It’s Who You Know: The Power Players of New York Fashion Week Barbara Ragghianti September 2, 2014

As first lady, fashion has helped Obama shape an image that is both accessible and aspirational.
Michelle Obama’s First-Lady Fashion: Subtle and Savvy Robin Givhan September 3, 2012

As Cutrone’s 22-year-old personal assistant Andrew Mukamal put it: “We’re at the service end of the fashion industry.”
Kelly Cutrone’s Outsider Army Sheila McClear January 30, 2010

“[The fashion industry] has fallen into a rhythm,” Marie continued.
Designers Won’t Dress Plus-Size Celebs Erin Cunningham June 5, 2014

Saint Laurent is indeed considered heroic in the fashion world—in France, he is a national icon well beyond the monde de la mode.
The Making of Fashion Legend Yves Saint Laurent Sarah Moroz January 13, 2014

Historical Examples

She had not dared to love Miss Armitage in this fashion in the beginning.
A Modern Cinderella Amanda M. Douglas

No shaft that Percival was able to fashion had point enough to pierce it.
The Spenders Harry Leon Wilson

Is that the force that is to build the future and fashion the city of our dreams?
Philosophy and The Social Problem Will Durant

He has an air, it is true, but his air is not a breeze, like the air of a pretender to fashion.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 Various

How lively and agreeable she is—how much she has the air of a woman of fashion and of the world.
Emmeline Charlotte Turner Smith

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 factitious).

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.
see:

after a fashion
in fashion