Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fashion \Fash"ion\, n. [OE. fasoun, facioun, shape, manner, F. facon, orig., a making, fr. L. factio a making, fr. facere to make. See Fact, Feat, and cf. Faction.]
-
The make or form of anything; the style, shape, appearance, or mode of structure; pattern, model; as, the fashion of the ark, of a coat, of a house, of an altar, etc.; workmanship; execution.
The fashion of his countenance was altered.
--Luke ix. 29.I do not like the fashion of your garments.
--Shak. -
The prevailing mode or style, especially of dress; custom or conventional usage in respect of dress, behavior, etiquette, etc.; particularly, the mode or style usual among persons of good breeding; as, to dress, dance, sing, ride, etc., in the fashion.
The innocent diversions in fashion.
--Locke.As now existing, fashion is a form of social regulation analogous to constitutional government as a form of political regulation.
--H. Spencer. Polite, fashionable, or genteel life; social position; good breeding; as, men of fashion.
-
Mode of action; method of conduct; manner; custom; sort; way. ``After his sour fashion.''
--Shak.After a fashion, to a certain extent; of a sort; sort of.
Fashion piece (Naut.), one of the timbers which terminate the transom, and define the shape of the stern.
Fashion plate, a pictorial design showing the prevailing style or a new style of dress.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A picture, usually a full-page advertisement, showing the latest fashion in clothing. 2 (context idiomatic English) A person who dresses in especially stylish fashions.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A fashion plate is an illustration (a plate) demonstrating the highlights of fashionable styles of clothing. Fashion plates are not depictions of specific people, but are instead generalized portraits, meant only to dictate the style of clothes that a tailor, dressmaker, or store could make or sell, or to show how different materials could be made up into clothes.
Used figuratively, as is most often the case, the term is a reference to a person whose dress conforms to the latest fashions.
Usage examples of "fashion plate".
Aygar, whose height and shoulders made him unmistakable, had been turned into a male fashion plate.
Ten minutes ago he'd have agreed with her that she was plain, and God knew she was no fashion plate, but what astounded him was that she honestly didn't seem to realize what it meant that he was Indian, or what he'd meant by his sarcasm, or even that he had been strongly aroused by her closeness.
She was a regular fashion plate, was Granny Hazelbide, and she was in a fury.
When the fashion plate held out her dainty gloved hand, a pie appeared on it.