The London Lounge

The Essence of Chic

Chic, the enfant terrible of fashion jargon, is an adjective that is either rarely or incorrectly used. It’s not beautiful, pretty, elegant, understated, suave, flashy, and it’s not a la mode or debonair, so, zut alors what in blazes is it?

Well the French language is chic and so is Paris. In fact the City of Lights has always been the world capital of chic so it might be a good idea to start there in our search for clues.

"C’est un chic type" tells us that the fellow in question is a bit romantic, courageous, and noble. "C’est un type chic" says that the fellow possesses chic, but it doesn’t tell us what chic is. So much for the Alliance Francaise

One often hears references to the chic parisien and the most chic of all Parisians was Jean Gabin, a possessor of universal, quintessential and extraterrestrial levels of chic. He left Paris in his youth to pursue a lady friend to Los Angeles. The lady friend was called, Marlene Dietrich. So birds of a feather do Normandie together. Marlene Dietrich had chic in every pore down to the molecular level and what a couple they must have made strolling down Sunset Boulevard arm in arm. Well the idea of Sunset Boulevard extinguishes any glimmer of chic imagery. Even William Holden, who was immutably handsome and talented, lacked anything closely resembling chic.

So what did Gabin have that Holden lacked? Gabin had a face that only a mother or a Dietrich could love. He was not six two though he did have eyes of blue. And he was a bit stout. Holden was a masculine 10. There is a lot of great news in this discovery: you don’t have to be tall or handsome to be chic.

Gabin didn’t always play the hero and even though he was often cast as the good guy, he was always pretty much a bad boy as well. Mae West would have appreciated Gabin’s rugged looks and would probably have noted that when he was good he was good but by being chic he could afford to be bad. In any case, it’s a relief to know one can be good and bad at the same time as long as one behaves with chic.

The actor Gabin was not able to make enough money throughout his career to support and assure the security of his family, so he bought a farm in Normandy and tilled the land to feed his kin. Not having to be rich is an attractive feature of chic. But courage and class are clearly required.

In his many roles in cinema and the theatre, Gabin was outfitted in every manner of dress imaginable and he always looked chic. I hate to disappoint the fashionistas, but chic has little to do with clothes.

Confidence and charm were the principal assets Gabin displayed in his career and his life. He was never what you would call smug as that device would have obviated the cheeky charm. But he was never lacking in direction or will.

Dear reader, I am not sure to have transported us any closer to a definition of the indefinable, but a few words tend to stand out when we speak about chic: confidence, courage, charm and class. Oh, by the way, if you have enough of these you’ll wear your clothes well and you’ll be chic in them.

Chic cheers

Michael Alden

You have, at the very least, separated the phenomenon from clothes and the marketing gimmick that clothes can make us chic.
NJS

Gabin was a well established actor at the end of the 30's. Nevertheless he fought during WW2 (in the tanks if I recall correctly), in de Gaule's corp in North Africa. There are very few artists of his caliber (especially in France!) who put aside their carreer this way to go risk their lives.

Gabin was a well established actor at the end of the 30's. Nevertheless he fought during WW2 (in the tanks if I recall correctly), in de Gaule's corp in North Africa. There are very few artists of his caliber (especially in France!) who put aside their carreer this way to go risk their lives.

That is true JDelage. And I suppose that hits the courage and class keys on the pianoforte of chic.



Cheers

M Alden

“Vive la liberté, surtout la mienne.”

Michael, thanks for this. As far as attempts at defining the indefinable is concerned, it does not get much better than this. It is never easy to define the intangible... I think the best way is to point at examples as you did.

That said, could you please expand on the notion of the fourth element, class? Having come from a society with a clearly defined class system, I sometimes feel that my understanding of class is different from that of others, namely those that come from cultures that have a different social framework. I get the odd feeling that it is yet another indefinable concept although there is a hint of it being something that can be achieved, acquired, learned or lost?

cheers,
s