Word: chic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...just snobbery. Through U.S. television, says British Grammarian Randolph Quirk, a foreigner can pick up an Americanized vocabulary "if you want to show you're with it and talking like Americans, the most fashionable people on earth." On the other hand, some upper-class Egyptian youths think it is chic to use Anglo-Saxon four-letter words like--well, merde...
Indeed, more and more parents seem to want their children to look not only nice but striking and even chic. This trend has created a boom for sellers of upscale children's clothes and accessories. At Baby Boxers, a Los Angeles manufacturer, items like $28 print shirts have pushed sales to more than $700,000 in the firm's first eight months. Says Co-Owner Jaye Bernstein: "Our business has just exploded." Many companies that made their name in adult apparel are now moving into the children's market. Esprit, a popular label founded in San Francisco in 1971, began...
...much of the demand for chic clothes originates with the parents. "Some people like to dress their kids up and parade them around for presentation," says Esprit President Douglas Tompkins. In fact, a well-dressed child may be the ultimate status symbol. Observes Dal Dearmin, a vice president at the advertising firm of Quinn & Johnson/BBDO: "Kids are the BMWs of the '80s." If upwardly mobile parents see things that way, the market for $400 dresses and gold-plated cribs may keep right on growing...
...result is a lean, sensuous narrative that suggests the existence of a place where affluent, middle-aged manuscripts can go for a rigorous diet and plastic surgery. The surface of The Garden of Eden is taut, chic and strangely contemporary. Newly married David and Catherine have pioneered their own Club Med on the Riviera. It is the perfect place for a sea change. The couple spend golden days brunching, mixing drinks with Perrier, wearing fisherman shirts and espadrilles, swimming and tanning in the buff. The rate of exchange is very favorable...
Wolf acknowledges that the concentration is somewhat "cliquey". Howell, who says that the food at her cafe is the best on campus and that the lobby exhibitions at the Carpenter Center are very interesting, also says that "the people who hang out here are chic, chi-chi--they see themselves as artistes...