If Everything Is Chic, Then What Actually Is?
If you have been on TikTok lately, you will know that apparently everything is chic now. Drinking water is chic, reading a book is chic, going for a walk is chic, having a matcha is chic. At this point, I am waiting for someone to tell me that blinking is chic. And I understand the appeal.
There is something lovely about making ordinary life feel a little more beautiful, and I am very much guilty of romanticising things myself. But somewhere along the way, chic stopped being something you simply recognised and became something you could apparently follow instructions for. Wear the white shirt, buy the ballet flats, carry the leather bag, slick your hair back, drink your coffee from the right cup, congratulations, you’re chic. But I don’t think it works like that. If everything is chic, then what actually is?
The things I actually find chic
To me, chic has very little to do with having the “right” things. You can wear the most expensive outfit in the room and still look like you’re wearing somebody else’s personality. Then there’s the girl in jeans, a basic white tees and flip flops, with her hair slightly undone, who somehow looks like the coolest person there. That’s chic to me. I find it chic when your lipstick leaves a mark on the straw of your coffee or matcha, when you’re carrying far too many things, your phone, coffee, sunglasses, bag, maybe a jacket, and somehow still look completely effortless. I find neatly kept, natural nails chic, great posture, a signature walk you could recognise from behind and a signature perfume that immediately reminds people of you. I find it chic when someone is genuinely kind to strangers, when they have the confidence to walk into a room as though they belong there and when they don’t feel the need to participate in every trend. I also find it incredibly chic when someone has one or two sports they genuinely love and actually keeps playing them, rather than picking up a new hobby because it has suddenly become fashionable. Even better when they’re curious enough to keep learning, whether that means trying a new hobby, picking up a skill, learning a language or simply knowing a little bit about things outside their own world. I love a consistent simple skincare routine that consists of exactly what someone needs, rather than everything the internet has told them to buy. I find self awareness chic too, knowing your personality, your flaws, your habits and your little oddities without constantly trying to reinvent yourself.
And honestly, I find keeping your life private incredibly chic. Not posting every dinner, holiday, relationship or thought. There’s something very attractive about someone who has a full life, with interests, skills, friendships and little rituals, that doesn’t require an audience.
Effortless does not mean effort-free
I think we have also made “effortless” far too complicated. The internet has created this strange idea that chic means looking as though you haven’t tried, when in reality someone has probably spent an hour making their hair look accidentally messy. There is nothing wrong with effort. I actually like effort. I just don’t want it to be the first thing I notice.
Give me someone who clearly cares about how they look but isn’t desperately trying to prove it. And I think that is where confidence comes in. The same pair of jeans can look completely different on two people because one is constantly wondering, Does this look good?, while the other has already decided that it does. There is something incredibly attractive about someone who doesn’t need to keep checking whether everyone else agrees with them.
Chic, to me, is that ease. It is not being perfectly polished; it is having enough confidence to let a little imperfection remain.
Maybe chic is just knowing yourself
Maybe that is what chic actually is: knowing yourself well enough that you don’t need an aesthetic to tell you who you are.
It is taste, but it is also confidence, humour, kindness, self-awareness, restraint and a little bit of individuality. It is knowing what suits you and not feeling the need to change it because everybody else has moved on to something new. The chicest people I know aren’t trying particularly hard to be chic. They just look like themselves completely, comfortably and without explanation. And perhaps that is why I think the word has become so diluted. Chic was never supposed to be a checklist. So wear the ballet flats if you actually like them, have your matcha, leave your hair a little messy, dance like nobody’s watching, post the picture if you want to. Just don’t do it because someone on TikTok told you it was chic. Do it because it feels like you. That’s much harder to copy, and much more chic.