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.
early 15c.; see fashion (n.). Related: Fashioned; fashioning.
A recurrent theme in 2007 was "fast fashion"-that is, inexpensive mass-produced variations of current designer merchandise, described by Women's Wear Daily (WWD) as "adulterated versions of things that have preceded them." In March actress Drew Barrymore appeared in advertisements promoting Gold, a 35-piece collection produced for international New Look stores by Giles Deacon, Britain's Designer of the Year. The affordable dresses, jeans, T-shirts, shoes, handbags, sunglasses, bangles, and earrings translated Deacon's dressed-up, glossy glamour into a more casual idiom. A month later Gap launched Gap Design Editions, a collection of inventive white shirts for women, created by cutting-edge American designers, including Doo-Ri Chung, Thakoon Panichgul, and Rodarte; in the autumn Gap premiered a limited-edition shoe collection that featured timely pointy-toed flats and high-heeled platform winter sandals by Pierre Hardy, the Paris designer famed for his unusual luxury footwear for Balenciaga. In November Roberto Cavalli lent his decadent, exotic touch to a collection of men's and women's party wear and women's lingerie for Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz; it was distributed in about 200 of H&M's 1,420 worldwide stores.