Power Chic as Style and Politics

A decade ago Tom Wolfe coined the term “radical chic” to describe what he regarded as a trendy identification of the wealthy with the poor. Wolfe’s 1970 essay focused on a benefit for the Black Panther party, and what he sought to capture was the incongruity of using a Park Avenue setting to raise money for a “revolutionary” organization. It was not the idea of giving that bothered Wolfe. It was the contradiction that arose when the wealthy turned radical causes ...