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Boho chic is back, and this time it’s not a TikTok trend — it’s straight from the runways.
Isabel Marant leaned into the aesthetic for its Autumn/Winter 2024 Paris Fashion Week show, doubling down on the brand’s classic fringe by way of fringed skirts and tassel scarves. And at Rabanne, Julien Dossena offered up a dose of boho chic via tasselled overlays atop colourful patterned dresses, trousers and tights. But it was Chemena Kamali’s debut at Chloé that sealed the deal. Models walked the runway in big ruffles, sheer dresses and statement accessories like a gold ‘Chloé’ logo belt and oversized shades. Leather tasselled trousers billowed at the bottom, while tousled waves were crowned with a furry headband. Wooden wedges lined the front row.
The day after the Chloé show, searches for the brand on The RealReal were up 37 per cent from the day prior. The brand’s sales are up month-on-month by over 130 per cent since Kamali’s debut, says Rachel Glicksberg, manager of women’s fashion and new initiatives at The RealReal.
As Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta predicted back in January: “I think what we’re going to see next is the revival of ‘boho chic’. Enter the Olsens in the late 2000s (2007 comes to mind) running around NYC, enter Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.”
Back in the noughties, frills and embellishments abounded, patterned headbands were in and oversized eyelet belts hugged already-chaotic outfits. This time around, boho chic has a more mature feel. Moda Operandi chief merchandising officer April Hennig notes a tougher side to the new interpretation. See: Chloé’s billowing dresses tucked into knee-high leather boots or topped with a dark leather cape; look to Marant, where the designer paired a black tassel skirt with a studded belt and grungey leather jacket.
The newer boho chic is more pared back, notes Hunter Shires, fashion critic and podcast host. At Chloé, there may have been statement belts (that were thin and gold), but the styling was still relatively simple: “Two statement accessories max, using big vignette sunglasses to cover up your minimal makeup and a big bag to throw all your shit in.” This reflects a desire for uncomplication, familiarity and nostalgia.
When Vogue’s Mark Holgate asked Kamali about the aesthetic’s resurgence ahead of her Paris debut, she shared her thoughts: “I think there’s this longing for undone-ness and freedom and softness and movement, and when you look at history, it’s rooted in the ’70s, when people wanted to free themselves from conventions and traditional lifestyles and sexuality.”
In fashion, boho became oversaturated, the designer continued — it became too commercial, and the industry got tired of the look. Now, perhaps enough time has passed for brands to play with the aesthetic once more. “It’s the moment for it again,” Kamali told Holgate. “People want to be themselves, live the way they live — defining your life for yourself.”
Unlike most trends these days that start online, the return of boho chic was born on the runway; perhaps it’s because of these high-fashion roots that fashion’s been so receptive. Tied to this is Kamali’s familiarity with the house and its boho codes — it’s now her third stint at Chloé. This traceability grounds the aesthetic in a way that trends plucked from internet obscurity lack.
For Matches head of womenswear’s Liane Wiggins, Kamali’s Chloé roots — and subsequent understanding of how to appeal to the ‘Chloé woman’ — are a win. “Chemena completely understands that customer and has a brilliant hand for the house.”
As we saw in Paris, brands are leaning into their DNA instead of bucking to quiet luxury. “Perhaps it’s not too surprising that after a few seasons of quiet luxury’s tight grip on fashion, and the stifling pressures of the world around us, clients are craving a sense of freedom that boho chic embodies: movement of billowing silhouettes, the dreamy quality of softer fabrics,” Hennig says.
Amid the feeling of impending recession in the US, people are drawn to a strong aesthetic, fashion theorist Rian Phin says. “Because a lot of fashion houses are doing really commercial offerings and scaling back this season, it draws people into these more exciting, more embellished characters that they can attach themselves to — especially in such an uncertain time.”
Not just another TikTok trend
The trend cycle moves faster than ever, but boho chic’s point of difference is that, unlike the “cores” of today, it didn’t originate on TikTok. Boho chic took root on the runway — then and now.
The Vogue Runway team has been eyeing a return aesthetic over the past couple of seasons, Criales-Unzueta wrote, and the clues laid in the jewellery of the spring collections. Phin points to Julien Dossena’s Jean Paul Gaultier Couture show, elements of Nicolas Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton and an under-discussed return of fringe in recent seasons as early indicators.
The signs were there, but these signs of pre-boho chic didn’t seem to resonate with internet cultural fashion commentators, Phin says. And boho chic’s runway origins may well be what’s putting them off. Hints of a pre-boho chic moment received mention in fashion pubs, but wasn’t picked up by online commentators. Phin attributes this ambivalence in part to a lack of context, courtesy of any viral TikToks on the trend. “That it was ushered in through the runway makes people, especially Gen Z, uncomfortable with it,” she says.
Plus, commentators are busy with the flip side of the coin: indie sleaze. “I think they don’t talk about [boho chic] as much because they’re focused on different 2010s hipster aesthetics,” Phin says. Scroll through TikTok and you’re more likely to hit content about the nightclub Cobra Snake era and smudged eyeliner moments than the HBO Girls, hipster aesthetics that rode the boho chic wave pre-revival days.
The runway ties are more likely to give the trend staying power, Phin adds, as opposed to a brief moment in the algorithms of the masses. “That’s why it’s been a little bit longer of a trend. It wasn’t overexposed on TikTok, or over-explained or even favoured. Maybe [people] are easing into it more slowly.”
Fittingly, boho chic harkens back to a time when this was indeed how trends began: on the runway.
Given the trend’s old school roots, it’s up to fashion — Chloé and otherwise — to steer the aesthetic’s new direction. “I think it’s really smart to not just mirror the TikTok or high-fashion Twitter trends,” Phin says. “To take the lead and agenda set again.”
The new boho chic
Aesthetically, it all feels very 2000s. Some items are well on their way back up to the top, just as they were back in ’07. The wedges that lined the front row at Chloé are already cementing their place as a hero item of the trend’s resurgence, experts say. “You may have noticed that the VIP front row guests at Chloé were all wearing the same wooden platform sandals — our shoppers certainly did,” Glicksberg says. On The RealReal, searches for wedges were up 25 per cent on the day of Kamali’s debut, and platforms 49 per cent the following day. “As we get into warmer weather, we expect to see this trend only grow,” she says. Matches’s Wiggins expects these to be a bestseller.
Phin also predicts a comeback of the paparazzi bag trend. Recall Mischa Barton with her massive Dior Gaucho Double Saddle tote in 2006; or Sienna Miller giving the paps the middle finger, bright red Balenciaga City bag crooked under her arm, two years earlier.
The market is already embracing slouchy hobo bags, says Aoife Byrne, senior retail and fashion analyst at Edited. Suede bag arrivals have seen a 13 per cent uplift year-on-year in the mass market, according to Edited. Balenciaga City bags — a hallmark of the boho chic look — have also seen a recent surge in interest. In the past year, searches stayed relatively consistent until a rise in early 2024. Searches for the bag hit a peak in late January, and have remained higher than the 2023 average since.
Fringe is another trend to watch. “We have already seen [it] on the rise in recent years from contemporary brands like Bode and Kallmeyer, and we expect to see this style increase in popularity,” Glicksberg says. The RealReal saw a 43 per cent increase in searches for fringe post-Chloé show.
Denim will continue to be a marker. “I loved the jeans Chemena came out in at the end,” Wiggins says. “I look forward to seeing how the denim evolves.” She also flags the capes as an anticipated “cult bestseller”.
Current cultural cues will also impact how the trend appears in our 2024 wardrobes, experts say.
“While the trend may be ripe for a reprise, a measured adaptation will keep it current for today,” says Moda’s Hennig. “Chemena brought the trend forward by infusing a confident attitude that makes the trend feel fresh and empowering — a feeling that is best expressed as designed by a woman for women. A sexiness from within, not for the male gaze.”
Edited expects a possible “Western spin”, Byrne says. “[It’s] thanks to persistent cultural cues, most recently supplied by Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams,” she says. Options for long cotton skirts, for instance, are already up 64 per cent year-on-year, per Edited.
But, critic Shires says, boho chic isn’t a trend predicated on newness. Budgets are tight — for brands and shoppers — and new ideas aren’t the priority for brands. “They’re using nostalgia as a ploy for a core buyer market, lacking exploratory ideas to pander to their business partners,” Shires says. “Women who are now in their 30s, having lived through the boho chic era, now have larger budgets and a desire to emulate the stylishness of their favourite childhood fashion icons.”
Boho chic: Then & now
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