Boho - The Fashion History Of Bohemian Style

Bohemian style has, for over 200 years, been an exotic alternative to the accepted fashions of a

given period. Generally associated with artists, writers, and intellectuals, bohemian culture

incorporates Gypsy, and various ethic clothing styles, as well as historical costume.

Bohemian style consists of loose, colorful clothing and has appeared as boho chic, hippie style, and

Aesthetic dress. With their long flowing hair and rich, though threadbare fabrics, bohemians stand out

in a crowd representing a colorful counterculture based on creativity, poverty, and an indifference to

social structures and traditions.

The Bohemians, as a counterculture, appeared in France after the French Revolution. Deprived of the

former system of patronage, where wealthy clients supported the arts, artists were plunged into

poverty. Many took up a nomadic life style, lived cheaply, and wore worn out and unfashionable or

used clothing.

Formerly, an artist was seen as a skilled and talented crafts person. But the Romantic Movement of

the late 18th century rejected the confines of bourgeois life and the former importance placed on

reason, to embrace the imagination.

A new cult of personality emerged with the artist as hero and individual style expressed in the way

one dressed. An artist became a special type of person, not merely a crafts person, but a kind of

eccentric genius whose creativity was displayed in the way they lived and looked. The artist himself

(or herself) was a piece of art.

People compared the new artistic types to wandering Gypsies and believed that Gypsies originated in

Bohemia, an area of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. So, they came to refer to artists and

intellectuals as Bohemians. (Gypsy was a European term for the Romany people, an ethnic group

with Indian origins who had migrated north. The word Gypsy, derived from the word Egyptian, which

many thought the actual home of the nomadic people who were often social outcasts that lived

outside the mainstream.)

By the 1830's, the French Bohemian art crowd and the Romantics embraced medieval and oriental

clothing styles. With their colorful fabrics, long flowing hair, and wide brimmed hats, the artistic culture

did come to resemble Gypsies.

The novelist Henri Murger wrote tales about the people that he called bohemians, centering on a

group of artists and intellectuals in threadbare coats, old shoes, and a general look of dishevelment.

The stories inspired Puccinni's famous opera, La Boheme.

Bohemian style evolved into a cult of the individual, a person whose very appearance became a work

of art with carefully planned outfits and accessories. The word bohemian suggested a sense of

arcane enlightenment, sexual freedom, and poor personal hygiene.

Bohemian life rejects materialism, private property, and centers on creativity and communal living.

Often associated with the use of drugs and alcohol, bohemians ignore social convention, centering

their lives on art.

In the 19th century, the Aesthetic Movement became a type of bohemian life style. The Aesthetics

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rebelled against the rigid social constraints of the Victorian era and embraced a style based on the

clothing of the past, particularly medieval dress and oriental designs.

Beliving that the mass production of the Industrial Revolution was dehumanizing, the Aesthetics

strove to encourage the old techniques of the Middle Ages with individually crafted goods. Clothing

was loose and soft, using fabrics colored with organic dyes and decorated with hand embroidery. The

Pre-Raphaelite artists of the day rejected corsets, crinolines, and the stiff bodices and restrictive

clothing of Victorian fashion.

Bohemian style, now referred to as boho chic, has come down through history, reappearing as

beatnik style and in the hippie culture of the 1960's. For 200 years, bohemian style has consisted of

several fashion elements.

Loose, flowing clothing made of natural fabrics

Less restrictive garments worn without corsets, bras or other restrictive elements

Loose, flowing hair

Colorful scarves worn at the neck, on the head, or instead of a belt

Peasant style clothing including tunics, loose trousers, boots, and sandals

Used or worn clothing

Oriental elements including robes, kimonos, an the ethnic designs of Persia, India, Turkey, and

China

Mixing historical elements of medieval clothing with ethnic styles

Layering

Matching of garments in a nontraditional manner, such as mixing prints, or unusual color

combinations

Multi strands of beads, several bangle bracelets, and the wearing of unusual, hand crafted, or

unmatched jewelry

Large dangle or large hoop earrings

Broad brimmed hats

Patched clothing

Paisley, flowered fabrics, ruffles, lace edged sleeves

A general disregard for tidiness and uniformity of dress

A look of contrived dishevelment

The Rainbow Gathering is an annual meeting of like minded individuals with a bohemian bent that

reject capitalism and materialism and embrace utopian ideals, the creative life, environmentalism, and

diversity.

The Hippie Movement of the late 1960's incorporated bohemian ideals. Centered on creativity of life

and dress, hippie style included elements of historic costume, ethnic dress, and a rejection of

mainstream life. To the right, in a clip from the Monterey Pop Festival of 1967, Country Joe and the

Fish perform to a crowd dressed in classic hippie style.

Greenwich Village, New York or The Village was a gathering place for impoverished artists and

writers in the 20th century, a haven for the creative communtiy as a distinctive minority group.

The Left Bank In the early 20th century, the Montparnasse area of Paris France was a hub of

creativity that attracted artists, writers, and intellectuals. Here, people like Marc Chagall, Ernest

Hemingway, Henri Matisse, and others were able to live cheaply, meeting in bistros and restaurants

to share ideas.

La Boheme and the Musical Rent - The musical Rent is based on Puccini's opera La Boheme. The

story revolves around a group of artists living the bohemian life and their struggles with poverty and

disease.

Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle's first short story featuring Sherlock Holmes included Doctor

Watson's description of the famous fictional detective's 'bohemian soul.'

Paul Poiret - The early 20th century fashion designer reworked a variety of ethnic designs for

Western fashion. His use of elements of Russian peasant costume, Middle Eastern, oriental, and

historic dress introduced bohemian concepts int high fashion that eventually bled into mainstream

fashion.

William and Jane Morris - William Morris was a designer who created alternative textiles for clothing

and interior design, known for his involevment in liberal socialism, historic preservation and known as

an early environmentalist. He also designed clothes for his wife, Jane Morris, a model who became

an icon of the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements in her loose, medieval style dresses and

abundant long hair.

Dorelia McNeill was a model for the artists Gwen and Augustus John in the late 19th and early 20th

centuries. Augustus and Dorelia lived a gypsy life in a caravan while he painted her in long, loose

skirts and scarves as they lived in a personal bohemian utopia.

Basically unchanged for many years, bohemian style came to be associated with young people

hoping to distance themselves from the materialistic culture of past generations. Bohemian style gave

birth to more modern counter culture styles. Beatniks, with their black turtle necks and striped shirts

took on a more austere tone of dress. Hippie style introduced a note of childhood into the mix by

incorporating cowboy and Indian styles as well as short, girlish skirts.

But as mass media embraced bohemianism, one wonders if the term is still viable. When a counter

culture goes mainstream, the style can no longer be viewed as alternative.

When discount stores sell peasant skirts, and fashion magazines offer expensive designer made

bohemian style garments, the nature of the bohemian life has become a cultural norm, and no longer

unique and specific to a particular group.

Though fashion often embraces boho chic, the life itself - the yearning for individual freedom, the

rejection of modern materialistic concepts, the dream of utopian ideals, and production of hand

crafted goods remains a powerful alternative to mainstream culture.

All photographs, unless otherwise noted, from wikimedia commons, creative commons and are in the

public domain due to age.

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