Is relaxed style making a comeback this year?
Oscar Wilde once said, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." As minimalist and quiet luxury trends fade, today's consumers seek more vivid, energetic styles. Enter Boho Chic — a powerful fusion of Bohemian freedom and hippie rebellion. Think flowing maxi dresses, romantic ruffles, wild suede and fringe, vibrant prints, artful layering, and bold over-the-knee boots — a style revival sweeping across global fashion runways.
The Bohemian style (Boho Chic), a timeless classic in the fashion world since the 1960s, has made a major comeback globally, becoming a favorite in the fashion industry once again. In 2024, several iconic figures in the global fashion scene have embraced Bohemian-style clothing, redefining the modern appeal of this classic trend.
Zendaya, who rose to prominence with the popular TV series Euphoria and the film Dune, has become a new fashion icon. At a fashion event in 2024, she wore a floor-length gown adorned with intricate fringe and beadwork, perfectly embodying the glamour and freedom of Bohemian style. This look not only showcased Zendaya’s unique charm but also brought attention to the enduring appeal of Bohemian fashion.
Echoing Zendaya's choice is British actress Sienna Miller, known for frequently gracing fashion magazines and newspapers with her Bohemian-inspired outfits. At the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, she once again donned a soft, flowing ruffled gown, embodying the elegance and freedom inherent in the Bohemian style. This free-spirited yet feminine style is one of the core characteristics of Boho chic.
Meanwhile, American music superstar Taylor Swift also embraced this trend. Throughout her "Folklore" era tour, Swift frequently opted for light, airy chiffon gowns, with designs inspired by Bohemian-style classics. Her outfits not only displayed her unique artistic essence but also reignited interest in the style within both the music and fashion industries.
The return of the Bohemian style is not limited to Western stars. In China, the Boho chic trend has also gained popularity in the domestic entertainment industry, partly due to the wardrobe choices of actress Zhong Chuxi, who portrayed Xiao Ye in the feminist film Good Things released at the end of last year. Her distinctive Bohemian-inspired outfits became a hot topic, combining freedom, artistry, and feminine strength, making it one of the most sought-after fashion elements today.
In summary, whether on the international stage or within China's fashion scene, Bohemian style is making a powerful return in 2024, becoming one of the most representative trends of the year.
From left to right: American actress Zendaya at a 2024 fashion event; American singer Taylor Swift in one of her outfits during the 2023 "Eras Tour"; British actress Sienna Miller on the 2024 Cannes red carpet.
Boho chic is a fusion of Bohemian style and chic elegance, incorporating signature elements like fringe, ruffles, suede, and prints into everyday wear, adding a touch of wilderness and nomadic spirit to urban life. This style boasts a rather long historical lineage, having existed for over 200 years since its inception. The origins of "Bohemian" remain debated - it's commonly believed to derive from the French term for the Romani people, who were thought to originate from what is now the Czech Republic's Bohemia region. Others argue the bohemian style emerged from the counterculture movement during the 18th century French Revolution, when aristocrats withdrew art patronage, leaving many artists impoverished, thus forming a lifestyle opposing mainstream society. Regardless of interpretation, bohemian fashion represents an instantly recognizable aesthetic, forever associated with romance, fluidity, freedom, rebellion and wanderlust.
By the 19th century, the term "Bohemian" came to refer to the itinerant male artists of Paris's Left Bank. These artists, who favored beards, soft felt hats, and wrinkled shirts, used loose and unrestrained clothing to express their disdain for mainstream society. Initially, Bohemian style served as a rebellious uniform for these male artists, but over time, through art and design, it evolved into a universal aesthetic language.
In the mid-19th century, an art movement called the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" was born. The artists, feeling pessimistic about an increasingly industrialized future, opposed the rigidity of academic art and the conservative atmosphere of the Victorian era. Instead, they embraced medieval legends, literature, and theater, seeking a return to the artistic style of the pre-Renaissance period. The works of the movement’s representative artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, often featured red-haired women in flowing, draped robes, wandering through a romanticized world of nature and mythology. His delicate and detailed brushwork could withstand deep and lingering gazes, symbolizing the artist's admiration for the forces of nature, love, and beauty. The women in his paintings, strolling through forests in their long robes, can be considered among the earliest female interpreters of Bohemian style. They not only represented a revival of the idealized medieval aesthetic but also subtly embedded the spirit of freedom and rebellion into the female form, laying the groundwork for the liberation of women’s fashion in the future.
As is well known, women's fashion during the Victorian era in the 19th century was bound by corsets and voluminous crinolines, which constrained women and, in the popular parlance of the time, transformed them into "Angels in the House"—pure and selfless figures within the home. It wasn't until the early 20th century that a designer finally brought the imagery from Rossetti's paintings to life: French designer Paul Poiret boldly discarded corsets, petticoats, and structured silhouettes, creating dresses, robes, and harem pants that flowed lightly over the body. His iconic "lampshade dress" used straight-line cuts to free the waist, allowing women to inhabit their clothing like male artists—moving, creating, and dancing freely without the suffocating constraint of a tight waist or the tripping hazard of a long skirt.
However, only women from the elite classes could afford haute couture, with Paul Poiret's clientele including avant-garde artists such as dancer Isadora Duncan. The true democratization of Bohemian style, however, came with the hippie movement in the 1960s.
The next peak of the Bohemian movement came in the 1960s and 1970s: young people on campuses and in the streets sparked an anti-war wave, engaged in various cultural activities, and called for love and peace. Key events like the "Summer of Love" music festival in 1967, centered in San Francisco, which later spread to Canada and Europe, and the legendary 1969 Woodstock rock festival in New York, became iconic moments of the era.
During these events, which later became known as the "Hippie Revolution," hippies gathered together wearing bold, expressive, and loose-fitting ethnic-print dresses, with ruffles and fringes flowing freely. Their necks and earlobes were adorned with layers of beaded necklaces and metallic pendants, while their feet were clad in suede boots or gladiator sandals. Their legs were dressed in low-waisted bell-bottom pants with thick leather belts, and their heads were crowned with denim hats, floral scarves, or bright headbands. Alternatively, they wore nothing on their heads at all, letting their long hair flow freely in the wind.
To this day, Woodstock remains synonymous with freedom, rebellion, and romance. The young people who participated in such events provided endless inspiration for today's "festival fashion" and "hippie chic" styles.
High fashion quickly took notice of the unique charm of Bohemian style. French fashion maestro Yves Saint Laurent, who was still working for Dior and had not yet established his own brand, began designing a series of garments inspired by the existential Bohemians of Paris's Left Bank as early as 1960. These designs blended the rebellious spirit of Bohemian fashion with a distinct sophistication.
After founding his own brand, Saint Laurent continued to push the boundaries of tradition. In 1976, he launched his famous Ballets Russes collection, drawing inspiration from Russian folk costumes and Russian ballet attire. He incorporated elements like embroidery, fringe, and prints, discarding heavy fabrics and restrictive cuts in favor of Bohemian-inspired loose layers and soft draping, exuding a luxurious yet untamed elegance. The 1970s Western fascination with "Slavic exoticism" carried romanticized, otherworldly overtones, and Saint Laurent used this to create a "fictional ethnic style" that merged Russian, Gypsy, and Moroccan elements—perfectly aligned with Bohemian eclecticism.
In the 1970s and 1980s, brands like Zandra Rhodes and Laura Ashley captured the romantic, artistic essence of Bohemian style, releasing idyllic, pastoral-style dresses that continued the celebration of free-spirited femininity.
If the essence of Bohemian style is the free-spirited, anti-war, and environmentally conscious hippie attitude, then boho chic can be seen as a purely aesthetic symbol stripped of political expression. It has become a part of the consumerist system and a fashionable item for urban women to adorn their lives. The transition from Bohemian to boho chic was driven by a wave of fashion icons at the turn of the millennium, marking the period when boho chic entered the mainstream: street style culture and paparazzi photography began to rise, and Bohemian-inspired icons like British actress Sienna Miller, supermodel Kate Moss, and American twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen graced countless magazines, becoming style references for women everywhere. They brought the nomadic, wandering aesthetic into daily life, wearing the vibrant energy of the millennium and contrasting sharply with the minimalist high fashion that dominated the 1990s. Their rebellious, free-spirited vibe captured the hearts of many, and boho chic emerged as one of the defining styles of the millennium.
Today, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss's festival outfits at events like the Glastonbury Music Festival are still widely emulated, and the character of Serena Van Der Woodsen from the iconic 2000s TV show Gossip Girl was modeled after Kate Moss’s style. This Bohemian-inspired, carefree aesthetic became a hallmark of the new millennium and continues to influence fashion.
If the birth of Bohemian style originated from a rebellion against the conservative values of the aristocratic class, expressing a heartfelt longing for a nomadic lifestyle, beauty, love, freedom, and peace, we can see that throughout its development, it has always stayed true to this track:
So, what does the resurgence of this trend today signify?
As Coco Chanel once said: "Fashion is fleeting, but style is eternal." The Bohemian style has stood the test of time for over two centuries, reappearing periodically without ever losing its charm. Perhaps, living and working in the concrete jungle, we may not have the same freedom as nomadic artists, and voluminous skirts and revealing crochet tops may not be practical for daily commutes. But we can still draw inspiration from their carefree and rebellious fashion choices—wear a ruffled skirt, tie a loosely fitting leather belt, and slip on a pair of suede fringe boots. In doing so, we can bring a touch of wildness and vibrancy to our urban lives.
Just like Xiao Ye in Good Things, working as a trendy musician, renting a house in the Wutong District, and living a new kind of cohabitation with her neighbors Tie Mei and the children, she strives to strike a delicate balance between the desire for love and maintaining self-control, living a free and independent modern woman’s life.
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