Fashion-related adjectives - please help.

[phamduc.minhanh]

Greetings,

I am a high school pupil from Singapore. Although English is my main daily communication mean, I still have a lot of questions about the language itself.

I have heard of people saying words such as 'classy', 'posh', 'refined', 'elegant', 'sophisticated', 'stylish', 'dressy', 'fashionable', 'fancy', 'gracious', 'trendy', 'smart', 'chic', 'voguish', 'modish', 'spiffy', 'dashing' and so on. Could you help me draw links between those words? Otherwise, could you point out the differences between them? Usually, dictionaries only show them as synonyms, but I am quite sure they are not interchangeable in some specific contexts.

The only ideas that have come up in my mind are that 'classy' and 'posh' denote high social status; 'elegant', 'gracious', 'refined', 'chic' and 'sophisticated' mean looking beautiful in expensive clothing and accessories; 'dressy', 'fashionable', 'fancy', 'stylish' and 'smart' indicate that one looks beautiful, but they do not necessarily contain the 'elegance' substance; 'trendy', 'voguish' and 'modish' refer to following up closely the fashion trend. I do not have any intelligent guess as to how to categorise the words 'dashing' and 'spiffy'. I might be wrong, so please feel free to correct me. Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheerio,

Pham Duc Minh Anh

[Tdol]

My take:
Spiffing- a rather old-fashioned term for something that is very good- a spiffing idea. If you hear it used in BrE, it is probably meant in a jocular manner- I don't know if this is the same in Singapore, but it sounds very 1920s to me.
Dashing- normally used for an attractive, well-dressed man, like Cary Grant.

[phamduc.minhanh]

My take:
Spiffing- a rather old-fashioned term for something that is very good- a spiffing idea. If you hear it used in BrE, it is probably meant in a jocular manner- I don't know if this is the same in Singapore, but it sounds very 1920s to me.
Dashing- normally used for an attractive, well-dressed man, like Cary Grant.

Greetings,

I am a high school pupil from Singapore.

Thank you very much. How about the rest of the words, was that correct for me to categorise them that way?

Cheerio,

Pham Duc Minh Anh

[Tdol]

I think so.