Bohemian-chic is a fashion style that has been around for centuries, but sparked popularity in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s when music festivals and hippie movements were spreading. It encouraged people to dress with a more free-spirited fashion sense.
Then, the style began to progress and adopt new forms. Most recently, boho-chic went through a phase of wearing fedora hats and flowy floral-print dresses. Such fashionable looks primarily appeared on Coachella’s festival grounds in the early 2010s.
- Annika Morris | Senior Graphic Artist
It has also found its way back into the fashion world in recent months, including the Chloé Fall/Winter 2024 show in Paris, which featured several boho-chic looks in the collection, ultimately revealing a newer, revitalized version of the aesthetic.
By styling looks with chunky metal necklaces, aviator sunglasses and sheer tulle dresses, Chemena Kamali, the Creative Director of Chloé, played around with different textures and fabrics to help achieve what appears to me as a classy yet relaxed look for the runway.
In this show, Kamali paid tribute to Karl Lagerfeld’s Chloé collections from the 1970s while simultaneously incorporating her own modern touch to the overall boho-chic style through practical yet elegant looks.
The general message that Kamali attempted to evoke was feminine intuition and freedom, which she achieved through unrestrained clothing. To me, Boho-chic is intended to hold a freeing and fluid feeling rather than one that restricts people and makes them feel unconfident.
With Kamali paying homage to the old boho-chic aesthetic, this show poses an important question: Is the boho-chic style coming back to modern fashion?
As seen in the Chloé collection, there has been a more calm and modern touch to the boho-chic style.
Instead of styling faux flower headbands and layering festival bead jewelry, the newer boho-chic style has become a lot more muted with less designs and patterns. This aligns nicely with the current quiet luxury fashion trends that have been surfacing lately. Furthermore, the collection featured sheer tulle blouses as well as flowy layered tulle dresses, all of which were solidly pastel-colored.
Other haute couture brands have also implemented a boho-chic look into their collections. For instance, in Alberta Ferretti’s Spring 2022 collection, the show contributed to the boho-chic revival by featuring several crochet-knit fringe pieces ranging from tops to bags.
Etro, another haute couture brand, is known for its iconic boho-chic pieces. Etro’s Spring 2022 show featured a lot of bold and eye-catching patterns through looks of flowy and sheer embroidered dresses, as well as fringe earrings. The show also featured Bohemian-style leather handbags with metal accents, gold arm cuffs and bracelets.
To prepare for its resurgence, there are many stores that you can fill your boho-chic void at, like Free People and Anthropologie. At these stores, you can find typical boho-chic pieces, like lace or floral-print blouses and dresses, as well as accessories like cowboy and fedora hats, layerable necklaces and leather boots.
If you want to shop more sustainably, you can also browse through pre-loved pieces from online shops, like Depop and ThredUP, to look for items to curate your ideal boho-chic outfit.
I find that boho-chic is one of the most versatile styles in the sense that it can be both dressed maximally, as depicted during the Coachella festival-style era, and minimally, as depicted through the Chloé Fall/Winter 2024 show.
As the aesthetic gains more exposure by the year, I anticipate seeing the way in which the boho-chic aesthetic unfolds due to its ability to be dressed both up and down. If it has lasted for over 50 years, it can go 50 more.
To answer your question, boho-chic is not making a comeback into street style. At BohoPink.com it never went out of style!