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Chichi means pretentious, fussy, or frilly. It also means affected or excessively refined.
While occasionally used as a synonym for chic, chichi is more often used in the negative senses described above. If someone says your outfit is chichi, it’s probably not a compliment.
Chichi is both a noun and an adjective, so people and things can be chichi, and also have chichi.
Amy’s wedding dress is covered in hundreds of tiny
Swarovski crystals, yards of Portuguese lace, and dozens
of fine satin bows, but the effect of this unrestrained finery
is chichi, not stylish.
In the media:
Guy Trebay, New York Times, “Dior Homme Stays in Its Safe Space,” 28 June 2017:
“Alongside the usual tra-la-la and chichi of Fashion Week in Paris, a fair amount of blah-blah was heard about the potential merging of the sexes on runways and the end of a separate men’s wear season altogether.”