Chic: A-L

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Main article: Chic (style)

See also Chic: M-Z

Contents 1 Art-school chic 2 Ashcan chic 3 Beach chic 4 Boho-chic 5 Bon chic bon genre 6 Camilla chic 7 Chav chic 8 Casual chic 9 Checkout chic 10 Chelsea chic 11 Coral chic 12 Council house chic 13 Geek chic 14 Goth chic 15 Heroin chic 16 Hick chic 17 High-street chic 18 Hippie chic 19 Killer chic 20 Notes

[edit] Art-school chic

See Hippie chic

[edit] Ashcan chic

Term used in the United States c.2005 for a "homeless" style, similar to boho-chic, that was initially popularised in Greenwich Village, New York by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Its main features were floppy hats, sunglasses and "dust-catcher" skirts. Bobo (i.e. bourgeois-Bohemian) chic was used in a similar sense.

[edit] Beach chic

"Beach chic" was the title of an article in 2006 by the Times fashion editor Lisa Armstrong about shopping for accessories to accompany a bikini ^[1]. These included a "cover-up" (e.g. a kaftan), flat sandals, a hat, a fake tan and - with the comforting footnote, "No, you will not look like a WAG [wife or girlfriend of a footballer]" - denture cleaner to whiten finger-nails. The Sunday Times referred to the Moroccan resort of Essaouira as the "boho/barefoot-chic beach" (the latter possibly a play on the term, "bare-faced cheek") ^[2]. See also Seaside chic.

[edit] Boho-chic

Style of fashion style in the early 21st century which drew on earlier Bohemian and hippie styles. It was associated in particular with actress Sienna Miller.

[edit] Bon chic bon genre

See Parisian chic

[edit] Camilla chic

Emulating the style, of which Burberry was a feature, of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who married Charles, Prince of Wales in 2005 ^[3].

[edit] Chav chic

See Council house chic

[edit] Casual chic

"Casual chic" (or "chic casual") is a difficult term to define, but can perhaps best be described as "dressing down" in a stylish way. In 2007 the clothing retailer Marks and Spencer suggested that some of the elements of "chic casual" were skinny jeans, "longline, clingy jerseys", "statement" bags and chunky jewellery. Singer Victoria Beckham was identified as epitomising this style ^[4]. Easy chic ("breezy blouses, slouchy knits and sexy denim" ^[5]) has similar connotations.

[edit] Checkout chic

Referring to fashion ranges promoted by major supermarkets: "Tesco has stepped up its 'checkout chic' war with Asda by launching a design-led range of clothes to tempt female shoppers" ^[6]. Cheap chic was used in a similar sense, though more in terms of the comparison between prices at supermarkets and those of leading fashion houses: "You can achieve this season's look just by visiting your local supermarket" ^[7].

[edit] Chelsea chic

Used by the Sunday Times ("The Sloane gets a sexy revamp" ^[8]) for fashionable trends among well-heeled "Sloane Rangers" (a portmanteau term coined in 1975 by Peter York, style editor of Harpers & Queen, from Sloane Square and the 1950s TV series The Lone Ranger ^[9]) in the Chelsea area of south west London.

[edit] Coral chic

"A versatile sarong and oversized bag in this season's pink ... to hit the beach in style" (Avon cosmetics 2006) ^[10].

[edit] Council house chic

"Council house chic" ^[11] or chav chic ("Chav Chic might have sunk the house of Burberry" ^[12]) referred to the fashions of working class "chavs" who shared Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall's taste for Burberry check. See also Camilla chic.

[edit] Geek chic

"The look of a computer nerd" ^[13].

[edit] Goth chic

Title of a "connoisseur's guide" by Gavin Baddeley (2002) to dark or Gothic culture. Among those associated with the "goth look" were the late 1970s punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees, American punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, formed in 2000, and Betty Curse, described by the London Times in 2006 as the "princess of Goth pop" ^[14].

[edit] Heroin chic

A waif-like, drug addicted look of the mid 1990s associated in particular with the model Kate Moss.

[edit] Hick chic

"Hick chic" was the subject of an article in Country Life in 2006 by Carla Carlisle, American-born wife of former British Member of Parliament, Sir Kenneth Carlisle. Lady Carlisle cited a friend's description of the term: "it's farmer's markets, four-wheel-drive cars, labradors, Harris tweed, Shaker furniture, Emma Bridgewater [tableware] ..." ^[15]. "Hick" derives from "Old Hickory", a nickname for Andrew Jackson, US President 1829-37, a frontiersman who, like hickory wood, was known for his toughness.

[edit] High-street chic

Applied to the sort of "everyday" sense of style that might be spotted in any metropolitan or provincial setting; most likely to be associated with prevailing "shop window" fashions. In 2004 the Observer wrote of the singer Dido that "she drifts on stage dressed in high-street chic: faded denim and a tracksuit top, which she slips off to reveal a pink camisole vest" ^[16]. Samantha Cameron, wife of British Conservative Party leader David Cameron was described in 2006 as "spurn[ing] the designers ... for high street chic" ^[17].

[edit] Hippie chic

Broadly similar to boho-chic (see e.g. London Evening Standard Magazine, 11 March 2005), the term was associated in the mid 1990s with Tom Ford’s collections for the Italian house of Gucci and, indeed, various aspects of hippie fashion re-appeared periodically after the "Summer of Love" of 1967 when hippiedom and psychedelia were at their peak. Art-school chic ^[18] had roughly similar connotations. Talitha Getty chic was applied by Hedley Freeman in the Guardian ^[19] to the hippie style associated in the late 1960s (and since) with the actress wife (d.1971) of John Paul Getty. Talitha Getty is said to have inspired Ford's hippie-style creations.

[edit] Killer chic

Devastatingly chic, as in a dress described as "gorgeous, 100 per cent killer chic" in Bergdorf Blondes (1984), a novel by Plum Sykes whose works were sometimes described as "chic lit" (a term that discarded the final consonant in "chick lit").

Continue to Maximum chic

[edit] Notes