Fashions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Styles of clothing and accessories reflect popular trends in aesthetics and design, representing evolving modes of personal expression and individuality in appearance
2. The changing landscape of clothing and accessory styles illustrates the dynamic nature of trends and aesthetics, allowing for unique personal expression and adaptation in fashion
3. Current widely accepted ways of dressing or presenting oneself that show prevailing tastes in clothing and personal style

Etymology: "Fashions" is simply the plural of "fashion" in its sense of prevailing styles, so the history below is that of the singular noun. The root meaning is much plainer than the modern sense: Latin "factio" meant "a making," from "facere," "to do or make." Fashion came into English through Old French "façon," which carried the sense of form, make or manner, and reached Middle English as "facioun" with the same basic idea of the shape something is made in. The word is a doublet of "faction," meaning that the two words descend from the same Latin source by separate routes, one through French and popular use, the other through more learned borrowing. Fashion's move from "the way something is made" to "what is currently popular" is a gradual narrowing of that shape-and-make idea into outward appearance, and then into what appearance is in vogue at a given time. The sense of stylishness is the latest step in this drift, not the core of the word.

Synonyms: styles, trends, fads, coutures, designs

Antonyms: outdatedness, unfashionableness, frumpiness, dullness, drabness