Chic

The origin of the French word “chic” is unclear: the Petit Robert etymologic dictionary says that it derives from the German schick (dress) and that French, in the early 1900s, began to use it (spelled chique) to indicate self-assurance, savoir-faire, and, finally, elegance. A Larousse dictionary of the early 1900s suggests another hypothesis, totally French, going back to the time of Louis XIII (the early 1600s). At court, the word “chic” was used to characterize a man very skilled in the art of getting past the law. It was a contraction of “chicane” which in old times meant to cavil, quibble, or make a zigzag movement in order to obstruct something (before becoming, today, a series of bends that slow down the cars during a Formula 1 race). It is the source of the English word “chicanery.” Over time the word “chic” changed its meaning and in Italy it is now used to indicate elegance. It must have been during the Belle Époque, or perhaps even before, that ladies imbued with French culture, which was needed in order to turn a young girl into a mademoiselle of good society, began to use it to define an unmistakable quality of style and taste. The women of that world owned clothes that could only be named in French: from the charming guêpière, and the peignoir worn when having the hair combed by the maid, to the filmy liseuse, a silk jacket with lace hems, in the same color as the nightgown in chiffon, or even in ostrich, like a powder puff. The trousseau of a “comme-il-faut” bride (that is, from a good family), who wished to have an enviable figure (today, a girl would say “a nice body”), called for a series of outfits to be worn at different times of the day. Besides the long evening dresses, there were the habillés that, over time and with the more widespread use of English, became the cocktail dresses of today. French culture (and, therefore, the idea of “chic”) dominated the Italian bourgeoisie up until World War II (the clumsy attempts by the Fascists to substitute ridiculous translations such as “ragazziera” for the French garµonnière weren’t taken seriously), but it also went beyond Italy because during the 1950s it was still France that set the law for the field of fashion all over the world. Ladies adored Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, and Dior, the undisputed masters of Parisian chic, and on their heads, in the evening, they often wore a feathered hat: long thin feathers that followed the curve of the face. The use of the term even after the very late date of 1968 has provided a lot of material for the column on costume written by Camilla Cederna for L’Espresso magazine. Today, the term “poverty chic” still used in some parts of the fashion periphery, while, on the contrary, the word griffe is all the rage, especially in the horrible Italian translation “griffato.”