The result-sleek, modern, elegant, restrained-was deemed so chic that Architectural Digest devoted a pictorial to it in 2002.

FORBES: The Rail World

"You look so chic, " says Fe Fendi.

CNN: P'Trique Comes to New York Fashion Week

Guest rooms are redressed so they feel chic yet cozy with hardwood floors and Ralph Lauren red leather beds.

FORBES: Three New Top Hotel Re-openings To Check Out In 2012

They're all so "hip" now, with their studied, casual-chic looks.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Asia Buzz: It's A Bubble!

So far, it's largely the preserve of the Franco-European chic set.

FORBES: Domaine de Murtoli, Corsica

Mr. Hardy's import is in its second summer in the Hamptons, and its casually stylish work force is so valued that the company now sets up its summer employees in a house on chic Culver Hill Street.

WSJ: New Celebrity: the Clerk

This has worked so far, but it could backfire if Burberry comes to be seen as more common than chic.

ECONOMIST: Face value

The Evening Standard, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, went so far as to hold a fashion shoot in the Occupy London camp, to celebrate the 'radical chic' of the protest movement.

WSJ: From Rags to Radical Rich