clique, paramount. Fanny's more rebellious classmates dye their blond hair black or sport pink dreadlocks. A footwear revolution is happening in the world’s fashion capital. The once-familiar click of stiletto on cobble is giving way to the silence of rubber soles

A footwear revolution is happening in the world’s fashion capital. The once-familiar click of stiletto on cobble is giving way to the silence of rubber soles

ECONOMIST.COM
Why French women no longer wear high heels
A footwear revolution in the world’s fashion capital

Dr. Gross, who has a well-known fondness of cigars, was smoking one under a giant drawing of Mao backstage after his own talk on Monday at the Great Hall when an official came in and said nobody had done that since Deng Xiaoping, China's former paramount leader who died in 1997.

But, Dr. Gross related with a smile, "He said, 'You're allowed.' "

Definition

paramount 
adjective FORMAL
more important than anything else:
There are many priorities, but reducing the budget deficit is paramount/is of paramount importance.



西藏首府拉薩14日發生民眾示威活動演變為流血衝突的不幸事件，美國之音引述目擊者和居民的話說，在發生示威抗議之後，當局實施了宵禁，並且全力撲滅將夜空照得通紅的熊熊大火。
CNN引中共稱此為Dali Clique所興之亂



The action seems intended mainly to reduce local resistance to edicts by Mr. Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, while also smashing the remnants of the political clique that had been tied more closely to Jiang Zemin, China’s former paramount leader, than to Mr. Hu.
Shanghai Party Boss Held for Corruption
By JOSEPH KAHN
Published: September 25, 2006


TELEVISION
Hated, Loved and Second-Guessed, MTV Is Still a Channel About Stars
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
“The Hills” — a dramedy, really, though shot amid the real lives of a clique of young women in Hollywood — has become MTV’s only reliable franchise.
(Comedy-drama, also called "dramedy", is a style of television and movies in which there is an equal, or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content.)

Fanny's more rebellious classmates dye their blond hair black or sport pink dreadlocks. Others wear tank tops and stilettos to look tough in the chilly climate. Tanning lotions are popular in one clique.



clique 
group noun [C] DISAPPROVING
a small group of people who spend their time together and do not welcome other people into that group:
Our golf club is run by a very unfriendly clique (of people).
There's a clique at work that never talks/who never talk to anyone else.

cliquey (cliquier, cliquiest) 
adjective (ALSO cliquish) DISAPPROVING
I decided not to join the tennis club because I found it very cliquey (= because new members were not made to feel welcome).

━━ n., vi. ((単複両扱い)) 徒党・派閥（を組む）; 派, 同人.
cli・qu(e)y　━━ a.
cli・quish・ness　n.
cli・quish
　⇒clique