A conversation about the concept of chic arose this past week after the launch of CHIC Fille a new French magazine.
It's not about being trendy, wearing the next thing, battling against aging, reckless consumption or chasing the latest trend like a headless chicken. A girl's style and her wardrobe are not a chain production mill of fast-paced fades, it should be cradled as a curated exhibition.
Everyday life is infested by what theorists call the 'megaphone effect', an audience pleasing game where you allure the readership by wearing the latest, the 'un-published', the hot-off-the-runway IT bag to drool over. It doesn't matter whether it's 'tasteful' or not, it's what the designer and the corporation behind him are supporting and will be featuring in the ad campaign. Coming soon to your nearby screen, meanwhile it's on Instagram or Twitter 'as seen' on X, Y and Z.
That 'as seen' means X, Y and Z received it in consignment or as a regalia where gift assumes the double sense of present for the blogger and free advertising before the paid advertising campaign. It's a merry-go-round of freebies where good taste, chic, elegance, eye for details go forgotten.
We are not here for bitching though.
Here we are in the realm of the naturally chic, instinctively refined, honestly sophisticated that doesn't happen overnight, but we believe in it. It's like going to school to learn how to cross stitch like good wives to be used to have to: it takes time, there's no crash course available, you have to climb the steps. Same happens when you decorate a house and you decide to hire an interior decorator, a landscape designer, buy pieces at flea markets and hang your child's pre-school hand-crafted masterpieces and dress your bed with family's heirloom monogrammed linens.
When people show they rely on you, they count on you and they consider you good at 'being chic', you are first surprised, baffled by the role and proud to take it seriously.
“... that’s how I ended up with this reputation for being the ultimate Parisian. I didn’t choose it, but I am very proud of it.”
It happened to Ines de la Fressange, unofficially crowned the Ambassador of French awesomeness. There are various misconceptions and rules, but the most important secret lays in learning the balance of being unpretentious.
