A scientist, in novel fashion (6)
I believe the answer is:
newton
'a scientist' is the definition.
(Newton is an example)
'novel fashion' is the wordplay.
'novel' becomes 'new' ('new' can be a synonym of 'novel').
'fashion' becomes 'ton' (I've seen this before).
'new'+'ton'='NEWTON'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for newton that I've seen before include "Great English mathematician who discovered gravity" , "Great English scientist who discovered gravity" , "Scientist - unit of force" , "Polymath who stated the laws of gravity and motion" , "SI unit of force" .)