What are we allowed to post in this section?

[OC Richard]

Now, to me "fashion" implies rather a fleeting and tenuous connection and is a wholly inaccurate description of two sections in the kilt world and as such, is hardly applicable to historical and traditional kilt attire. I wonder if the word "style", might be a better option, instead?

Ah, the meanings of words! Dictionaries define one word with others, and a Thesaurus gives ostensibly equivalent words, yet it's widely recognized that there's no such thing as exact synonyms, and no word means exactly the same thing to any two people.

So, the dictionary I have to hand states, in part:

fashion 4. the current style or mode of dress, speech, conduct, etc.

style 6. the current fashionable way of dressing, speaking, acting, etc.

and my Thesaurus says:

fashion style, custom, mode, trend, general practice, usage, habit, prevailing taste, vogue, craze, fad, rage

style 4. fashion, vogue, currency, favor, trend, taste, craze, fad, mode, rage

all of which make "fashion" and "style" be about as equivalent as any two words could be!

On the other hand, there's a book dedicated to exploring the shades of meaning of various words

Use The Right Word
A Guide To Modern Synonyms
by S. I. Hayakawa

There's no entry for "fashion" or "style" but there is this:

stylish
chic
dapper
fashionable
modish
smart
spruce

These words refer to grooming and clothes that are fastidious, elegant, well designed, or in accordance with current taste. Stylish emphasizes something designed and executed so as to display a trend-setting flair for what is in vogue. In this it is close to fashionable, but is less formal, suggesting a more dramatic appearance, based on more transitory up-to-the-minute standards. By contrast, fashionable emphasizes elegance, correctness, and possibly a simplicity of expressive taste that is not likely to become dated so quickly: Leopard coats were stylish for a season, but mink coats will always be fashionable...

Of course these shades of meaning vary from person to person, region to region, and through time. Use The Right Word was written in 1968 and is probably already dated in many of its opinions. I know that I, personally, don't make any distinction between 'stylish' and 'fashionable' and Jock's impression is the opposite of Hayakawa's.