Iki is a hard concept to pin down. Writing from Paris in the 1920s, Japanese philosopher Kuki Shūzō remarked that though the French terms chic and raffiné share connotations with iki, no European word can really capture the many layers of the Japanese. Geisha are iki, as is traditional Japanese architecture and the writing of Haruki Murakami. In design, parallel lines and vertical stripes are iki, as are certain grays, browns and blues.  Read Less