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Chic this and chic that — not everything can be chic. Actually, most things aren’t chic.

Merriam-Webster defines chic as “smart elegance and sophistication especially of dress or manner.” The word is derivative of chicanery, an old French term, that has a correlation with the idea of sophistication. 

The term chic grew in popularity between the late 1950s and 1960s. For the 1954 movie “Sabrina,” Edith Head won several Oscars for costume design. When discussing the dress Audrey Hepburn wore, Head said, “If it had been worn by somebody with no chic, it would never have become a style.” 

Hepburn was chic because she was sophisticated, elegant and prioritized simplicity. That’s what being chic is. Chic is not eating toast in the morning or putting your dishes in the dishwasher after dinner.

It’s frustrating when everyone — both online and in real life — misuses the word chic. Not everything can be “kind of chic.” Chic is an overall sense of elegance, not something you can achieve by taking a single simple action. When someone is chic, you know it instantly. There is a vibe. You cannot just do one chic thing. 

When you look at a chic person, you instantly know it. Not because they have a shiny phone case or because they keep their pasta water, but because they hold themselves with quiet confidence. They have good posture, calm speech and thoughtful manners that demonstrate a strong sense of self-respect, but it’s not overwhelming or aggressive. It is simple, yet intentional. 

Social media especially has turned the word into a trend, but most users misuse it. They make a list of daily occurrences and call that chic. But something that is chic should have a certain gravitas that brushing your teeth just doesn’t.

Not only are people misusing the word, but they are overusing it. For me, every other post online contains the word chic now, and everyone is a chic freak. I get that people like to rotate a new, trendy word into their vocabulary, but the misuse of chic has got to go. Let’s bring back fab. Anything can be fab. 

I know I am not alone on this hill. Users online have expressed similar hatred toward this word. With videos on social media, chic is either used within the “kind of chic” trend or complain about it. 

I know that the “kind of chic” trend will die. Society moves on from trends in a matter of days sometimes — we have seen the preppy, coquette and clean girl trends. They are all the same simple and elevated aesthetic with their own twist. It’s repetitive. 

The word chic will undoubtedly fall back into the archives, and a new trendy word will arise. But until then, we need to remember that not everything is chic. Some things are just things.

If you find yourself thinking something is kinda chic, it’s not. It’s just fab. Replace it with fab because everything can be fab. 

​Reach Charlotte Seymour at letters@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.