some sections from 'What is Chic? Investigating Fashion's Favourite Word' by Matthew Schneier:
'the majority of Carine Roitfeld's 2010 interview in Russian Vogue was all but unintelligible to the Western world — at least to the large swaths of it not versed in Cyrillic. alongside a characteristically moody Hedi Slimane portrait ran a Q&A with Roitfeld, then the editor in chief of Paris Vogue. it found its way into the Roitfeld-worshipping corners of the blogosphere, where eventually a helpful fan provided a complete translation. but for the last question, she needn't have bothered. though there is a Russian word for the single term she chose thrice over when pressed to describe herself in three words — шик, or 'shikarnyi' in everyday speech — her final answer was printed in Latin case: chic, chic, chic.
the French have a way with indefinable qualities. they have a long-established phrase for it: je ne sais quoi. so does the fashion world. it's chic. chic is when something is stylish, when something is cool, when something is proper, when something is ineffably, indescribably, great.
open a fashion magazine, load a fashion web site (including this one), attend a fashion show, or eavesdrop at a fashion party, and it is a given that you will read or hear one particular word: chic. (it hardly matters on what continent you're looking or listening; as we'll see, chic is chic is chic, in America and abroad.)
but despite its dalliances in other spheres, it's in fashion where the word has enjoyed the most constant usage. 'the word does get linked to pretty much everything at the moment and it does get thrown around pretty easily,' complains Peter Copping, creative director at Nina Ricci, whose fluttery Parisian ready-to-wear may have a better stake on the term than most. Marco Zanini, creative director at Rochas agrees. 'it is so overused, it really lost its meaning, from my point of view,' he says — so much so that a few seasons ago, he dedicated his entire collection to exploring what the word actually means. when he began searching on Google and Google Images, he 'realised that basically on the Internet it doesn't have any meaning at all. if you Google 'chic' you'll be amazed by the cheesy stuff that will pop up.'
those on the editorial side have noticed, too. two years ago, says Heather Wagner, copy director at Elle, 'we even had a meeting about it. it was on every other page. it was back when Carol Smith was our publisher; she actually noticed it and said there's a moratorium on the word 'chic.'' some arbiters are recommending restraint. 'i don't throw that word around lightly,' Tommy Ton tells me. and what the repercussions of constant usage are remains unclear.
'chic is about a way of being, because there is no specifically chic item or dress, it only depends on the person; it depends on you,' Zanini says. 'i don't think it's purely on appearance or the way somebody dresses, i think it's how they live their life,' Copping adds. 'i keep thinking back to a woman like Pauline de Rothschild, who was very refined in the way that she dressed, but then she was also known for doing the most beautiful tables for any dinner party that she gave; her apartment was beautiful; and i mean, then i want to say very chic. those people, when they have to thank someone it would be a handwritten note, not just a text that's flashed off to somebody. and i think in culture at the moment there's kind of a dumbing down on a lot of those fronts.'
voilà chic: the journey, not the destination.'
'the majority of Carine Roitfeld's 2010 interview in Russian Vogue was all but unintelligible to the Western world — at least to the large swaths of it not versed in Cyrillic. alongside a characteristically moody Hedi Slimane portrait ran a Q&A with Roitfeld, then the editor in chief of Paris Vogue. it found its way into the Roitfeld-worshipping corners of the blogosphere, where eventually a helpful fan provided a complete translation. but for the last question, she needn't have bothered. though there is a Russian word for the single term she chose thrice over when pressed to describe herself in three words — шик, or 'shikarnyi' in everyday speech — her final answer was printed in Latin case: chic, chic, chic.
the French have a way with indefinable qualities. they have a long-established phrase for it: je ne sais quoi. so does the fashion world. it's chic. chic is when something is stylish, when something is cool, when something is proper, when something is ineffably, indescribably, great.
open a fashion magazine, load a fashion web site (including this one), attend a fashion show, or eavesdrop at a fashion party, and it is a given that you will read or hear one particular word: chic. (it hardly matters on what continent you're looking or listening; as we'll see, chic is chic is chic, in America and abroad.)
but despite its dalliances in other spheres, it's in fashion where the word has enjoyed the most constant usage. 'the word does get linked to pretty much everything at the moment and it does get thrown around pretty easily,' complains Peter Copping, creative director at Nina Ricci, whose fluttery Parisian ready-to-wear may have a better stake on the term than most. Marco Zanini, creative director at Rochas agrees. 'it is so overused, it really lost its meaning, from my point of view,' he says — so much so that a few seasons ago, he dedicated his entire collection to exploring what the word actually means. when he began searching on Google and Google Images, he 'realised that basically on the Internet it doesn't have any meaning at all. if you Google 'chic' you'll be amazed by the cheesy stuff that will pop up.'
those on the editorial side have noticed, too. two years ago, says Heather Wagner, copy director at Elle, 'we even had a meeting about it. it was on every other page. it was back when Carol Smith was our publisher; she actually noticed it and said there's a moratorium on the word 'chic.'' some arbiters are recommending restraint. 'i don't throw that word around lightly,' Tommy Ton tells me. and what the repercussions of constant usage are remains unclear.
'chic is about a way of being, because there is no specifically chic item or dress, it only depends on the person; it depends on you,' Zanini says. 'i don't think it's purely on appearance or the way somebody dresses, i think it's how they live their life,' Copping adds. 'i keep thinking back to a woman like Pauline de Rothschild, who was very refined in the way that she dressed, but then she was also known for doing the most beautiful tables for any dinner party that she gave; her apartment was beautiful; and i mean, then i want to say very chic. those people, when they have to thank someone it would be a handwritten note, not just a text that's flashed off to somebody. and i think in culture at the moment there's kind of a dumbing down on a lot of those fronts.'
voilà chic: the journey, not the destination.'
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