List of chics

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This is a list of notable chics.

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 Maximum chic 21 Military chic 22 Northern chic 23 Paradise chic 24 Parisian chic 25 Porn chic 26 Prairie chic 27 Radical chic 28 Rich-girl chic 29 Rock-girl chic 30 Rural chic 31 Satin chic 32 Seaside chic 33 Shabby chic 34 Shady chic 35 Soldier chic 36 Talitha Getty chic 37 Vampire chic 38 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, slouchy sweaters and hoodies with comfortable flats. 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 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").

[edit] Maximum chic

An ironic coinage by the loafer Onslow (played by Geoffrey Hughes) in a 1995 episode of the BBC TV comedy series, Keeping Up Appearances, created by Roy Clarke: "maximum chic for me is more your laid back slobby look".^[20]

[edit] Military chic

Adoption of military gear such as camouflage patterned clothing, war medals, military insignia, surplus clothing or dog tag necklaces (adopted in the American Civil War) into fashion. The term and the similar soldier chic were widely applied c.2003-5, although in fact military apparel, such as the flight jackets worn by pilots during the Second World War, had frequently influenced fashion and paradoxically was often in vogue at times of anti-war feeling, such as in the late 1960s when protests against the Vietnam war were at their height (as, indeed, after the Iraq war of 2003): "One would have thought, given the unpopularity of armed forces activity in some quarters, that 'military chic' would not be, well, chic".^[21]

[edit] Northern chic

Occasionally applied retrospectively^[22] to aspects of the musical and cultural boom generated by the rock group, the Beatles, and other artists such as Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in 1962-4 (the "Mersey Sound"). "Northern" is a reference both to Northern England and Northern Songs, which published compositions by the Beatles' John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

[edit] Paradise chic

Coined by Marks & Spencer in 2006 for a post-boho collection: "This summer, modern classics are feminine, sophisticated and polished".^[23]

[edit] Parisian chic

Frequently applied to anything stylish connected with the French capital Paris or to the style of French celebrities (e.g. actress Charlotte Gainsbourg^[24] or others living in Paris, such as the English actress Kristin Scott Thomas^[25]). Variants included "Left Bank" or "Right Bank" chic (or even "Left Bank chic versus Right Bank polish").^[26] Gainsbourg's mother, the British-born actress Jane Birkin, remarked that she would choose "English eccentricity over Parisian chic every time", adding, "chic you can learn - it's just a form of grooming".^[27]

The term bon chic bon genre or BCBG ["good style, good class"] was applied in the early 80s to the French equivalent of British "Sloane Rangers", their typical "uniform" including a mackintosh, ballet shoes, trousers, a cashmere sweater, and accessories such as a "Birkin" bag and a Cartier Tank Française wrist-watch.^[28]

[edit] Porn chic

"Porn chic" (or porno-chic) was first applied to films such as Deep Throat (1972) and Emmanuelle (1974) which were commercially successful and thus tended to bring "soft" pornography into the mainstream. Subsequently it has been used to refer more generally to pornography in popular culture.

[edit] Prairie chic

Flat caps and floral dresses or aprons over jeans.^[29]

[edit] Radical chic

Coined by journalist Tom Wolfe in 1970 to describe the adoption of radical causes by society figures and celebrities: see main article.

[edit] Rich-girl chic

Said to be "oozed" by a New York socialite in Plum Sykes' The Debutante Divorcée (2006).

[edit] Rock-girl chic

"Rock-girl chic" has meant different things during differing periods of music and fashion, but was often associated with a hippie image and was similar enough as a phrase to the slightly patronising "rock chick" to convey a sense of being a "groupie". This and similar terms, such as "boho-rock" (2006), were often applied to model Kate Moss, whose mother, Linda Moss, wrote that "Kate veers effortlessly between rock-girl chic and dripping-in-diamonds elegance".^[30] Moss's relationship in 2005-7 with Pete Doherty of the group Babyshambles tended to emphasise the tag.

[edit] Rural chic

Applied by the Sunday Times to a fashion collection designed and modelled by Savannah Miller, Cotswold-based sister of actress and noughties "boho-queen" Sienna Miller, for the Hong Kong based label, Shanghai Tang.^[31]

[edit] Satin chic

Title of a song by Aliison Goldfrapp & Will Gregory (2005).

[edit] Seaside chic

"Stripes, shorts, suits - seaside chic for the girl in every port";^[32] "Seaside chic ... bright, bold colours, vibrant prints and stylish accessories rule the waves".^[33] See also Beach chic.

[edit] Shabby chic

The deliberate use of worn and shabby materials in interior design or fashion, associated particularly with the firm of that name founded in 1989 in Santa Monica, California by the English-born designer Rachel Ashwell. The effect of limewashing timber-framed buildings has been described as "shabby chic".^[34]

[edit] Shady chic

The use of stylish parasols for outdoor parties: Metro, 11 July 2006.

[edit] Soldier chic

See Military chic

[edit] Talitha Getty chic

See Hippie chic

[edit] Vampire chic

Similar to goth chic, but of a more explicity Vampiric nature.

[edit] Notes