Following a trend, in a way (5,1,7)
I believe the answer is:
after a fashion
'in a way' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'following a trend' is the wordplay.
'following' becomes 'after' (I've seen this before).
'trend' becomes 'fashion' (fashion is a kind of trend).
'after'+'a'+'fashion'='AFTER A FASHION'
(Other definitions for after a fashion that I've seen before include "In some (unsatisfactory) manner" , "Following a fad" , "Behind time" , "In some manner but not very well" , "Not completely" .)