It happened in Paris one grey February day.
Sienna Miller was in an oversized, black leather jacket, lace-trimmed silk slip and clumpy great wedges. Around her, women wore crochet skirts, some held capacious and worn leather sack bags while plenty were bundled in beige suede. No, this wasn’t February 2005 but earlier this year, when the boho-chic army held a reunion outside the Chloé show.
Inside, its incoming creative director Chemena Kamali whacked the hippy gong. To the backing of Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting, her debut collection was a wave of Seventies-tinged, floating and frilled chiffon dresses in icy blues and every iteration of brown. They were paired with clanging gold pendants, cashmere capes, over-the-knee leather boots, swathes of white lace and Jane Birkin flared jeans.
It flew. Trend forecaster WGSN found “Kamali’s debut for Chloé is what cemented the commercial return of boho”. It succeeded in setting off a chain (belt) reaction which has seen Miller, Kate Moss and the Olsen twins’ go-to Noughties look (as pinched from pin-ups Anita Pallenberg, Stevie Nicks et al) resuscitated from its festival dress-up box coffin — and re-packaged as this season’s most impactful trend.
Miller herself leant in over the summer, re-hashing some of Kamali’s Chloé looks she flaunted during her Horizon: An American Saga press tour for a Haight-Ashbury-adjacent M&S collaboration in June. “I think everyone looks great in it,” she told the press at the time. “This [new] take on boho is kind of what was naff back then. Some of the Nineties, early 2000s designer co-ords and little glasses. I think people look beautiful in floaty things, I really do.”
There has been no shortage of celebrity endorsement, either. Daisy Edgar-Jones’s stylish Twisters tour had a handful of Chloé-engineered boho moments, joining other fans Jennifer Lopez, Greta Gerwig, Suki Waterhouse and — at the Democratic National Convention — even Kamala Harris. Okay, hers was a suit: but it was by Kamali and, at the end of August, the brand and boho had started to feel as synonymous as they had when Phoebe Philo was at its helm (the heady days between 2001 and 2006).
Then came the royal approval. The Princess of Wales released her sepia-toned short film exploring forests in floaty frocks as she told the world she was cancer-free. One Veronica Beard linen printed dress in particular struck the mood. A spokesperson at Lyst confirmed the trend experienced a “remarkable surge” after the film was released this month. Searches for “Veronica Beard dresses” shot up 63 per cent, while those for boho are up 86 per cent this quarter.
How to pull it off
By way of wearing the look — historically a spring/summer favourite — in autumn, it is not a stretch to consider the typical staples and then add a few layers. “It’s all in the fabrications and accessories,” says Kate Benson, buying director at Net-A-Porter. “Leather jackets, knitwear and knee-high boots all pair back to the whimsical chiffon dress you wore in summertime, while a ruffled blouse works just as well with a flared jean and wool jacket as it does with denim shorts. For autumn/winter, compliment your look with suede fabrications, and focus on rich seasonal colourways like chocolate brown and burgundy.”
You should have no trouble finding the ingredients across the high street. John Lewis, in particular, has doubled down on its offering. Its director of design, Queralt Ferrer, explains: “We’re at the forefront of upcoming trend forecasting here at John Lewis so it was essential to include ruffles and floaty fabrics that encompass the effortless boho look within our AW24 collections.” One such ruffle dress in peach, which is out in mid-October, is a sure bestseller, while Ferrer recommends looking to their new suede selection which ranges from a fringe jacket, £249, to a trench, £399, and midi skirt, £199.
M&S has a moss green, tiered chiffon Per Una frock, £89, out in October; while Free People, which refers to itself as “a destination for bohemian fashion and one-of-a-kind clothing”, has everything from chunky cardigans to all-year-round white tier linen skirts to pair with cowboy boots now and heavy buckled biker boots when the ice inevitably comes. Mango boasts an exhaustive selection of poet blouses (one eye-catcher is snake-printed, £109) while Charlotte Simone is the west London, Portobello Market-goers first stop for shaggy, Mongolian lambswool coats as worn by Lila Moss, Charli XCX and Dua Lipa.
For many of Gen Z not old enough to remember the mid-Noughties, the buzz has sent them back to the fashion history books. On TikTok there are more than 200,000 videos tagged #bohostyle, while influencer Parisa Louvel (@badkidhq on Instagram, where she has 203K followers) has seen interest in her mix-and-match outfits increase. “Boho chic is back and people have rediscovered Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who are the early 2000s ringleaders,” she says. “Everyone is buying pre-loved items and boho is easy for that.” As for her top styling tips: “The less it looks like you’ve tried, the better. Also lots of bangles and rings — you want to sound like a musical band when you make your entrance. Big glasses are a must, so is undone hair.”
Those in their teens and early twenties going through the archives will have found Matthew Williamson’s era-defining shows, as he helped pioneer bohemian luxe for Moss and Miller back in the heyday.
Now an interior designer, he reflects, “Enough time has elapsed since the Noughties for it to feel fresh again.” He agrees that, for anyone trying to achieve the look, “vintage would be a good place to start. Think about hard and soft together, like leather and lace, or classic textures like sheepskin and leopard print.” As for its appeal, he explains, “Bohemian dressing suggests a very alluring laid-back attitude and way of life — my friend Sienna Miller has always had this approach to dressing and I’m not surprised her looks are coveted.”
What next? Jessica Seddon, WGSN’s senior strategist, thinks “the boho trend will evolve and become darker and more grungy. We are already seeing witchy and goth trends coming through, and these aesthetics are rooted in boho.” The ghost of Sienna? It’s Halloween sorted, anyway.
