Boho - The Fashion History of Bohemian Style
200 Years of Boho
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.
Rosetti's Bocca Baciata - Bohemian Style
Gypsy Woman
Origin of the Bohemians
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.)
Bohemian Life Becomes Its Own Kind of Establishment
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.
Sophie Gray - Painting by John Everett Millias 1857
Bohemians in the 19th Century - The Aesthetic Movement
In the 19th century, the Aesthetic Movement became a type of bohemian life style. The Aesthetics 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.
The Bohemian - A Painting by Renior
Hippie Style or Boho chic
Fashion Elements of Bohemian Style
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
Hippie or Bohemian Style
Jane Morris
Dorelia McNeill
Bohemian Icons
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.
Modern Bohemian or Hippie Style
20th Century Bohemian Style
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 coutner 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, no longer unique and specific to a particular group.
Though fashionistas embrace 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.
Boho Roots - Hungarian Gypsies Early 20th Century
The Aesthetic Movement
- Fashions of The Aesthetic Movement - A Cult of Beauty and Victorian Counterculture
The Aesthetic Movement was a counterculture of artists, writers, and designers in Victorian England who opposed the dehumanization of the Industrial Age. Aesthetic fashion stood against the stiffness of corsets and Victorian materialism, favoring a n
Victorian Fashion
- Women and Fashions of the Victorian Era: From Hoop Skirts to Bustles - 1837 - 1900
Victorian fashions reflect the clothing worn between 1837 - 1900 during the reign of Queen Victoria. Despite the prim and proper feminine ideal, Victorian clothing includes outrageous styles like hoop skirts and bustles.
Medieval Clothing
- Fashion History of the High and Late Middle Ages - Medieval Clothing
The evolution of fashion in the high and late Middle ages due to the cultural influences of Asia and improved technology in the making of European medieval clothing. Attractive styles became more available to new middle class, and clothing styles cha
Dashiki - Traditional African Shirt Goes Hippie
- Dashiki - An African Fashion of the 1960's
A dashiki is a loose, tunic type shirt that became popular in the United States during the 1960's. The traditional African design gained a stronghold during the hippie movement of the 1960's
Kaftan - Middle Eastern Style
- Kaftan or Caftan - A Fashion History of Modesty and Glamor
The kaftan, or caftan has been around for thousands of years and worn by both men and women. Loose and comfortable, kaftan style has been popular with Bohemians and hippies.
Comments
Magnificent research, Dolores, and a thoroughly fascinating well-written hub on Bohemian style in fashion. Boho never did entirely go away it appears. Thanks for the Bohemian education.
I appreciate all the detailed research you have done on this hub Dolores. Lots of interesting tidbits that I enjoyed...but the top ones would be Sherlock's bohemian soul(I did not know that)...and that Puccini's opera La Boheme was the basis for rent...great stuff along with the awesome photos that show the changes through the years...voted up
jueaukid - somehow I wound up going out yesterday in a tie dye skirt and shawl (it was quite cool here). Glad I didn't try that out when I wrote the Elizabethan fashion hub, haha. Thank you.
drbj - thank you. I know that young folks are interested in the hippie look and just wanted them to know that it's a lot older than 40 years. Thank you! Bohemian is beautiful!
Cogerson - thank you very much! I really want to read some Sherlock Holmes and hate to admit that I never have. I used to think the whole Holmes thing was just weird Victorian but love the idea that he had a bohemian soul.
This was so beautiful. Thanks for writing and share with us. Again.... I learn much from you. I give my VOTE to you. Have a great day! ~prasetio
I really enjoyed this article, Dolores! Very captivating topic and writing style. Boho fashion, like the artistic soul never goes out - thank heavens. Thanks for another beautiful hub:)
I have always love BoHo skirts personally. They can be quite beautiful.
Hi, Dolores. Awesome hub, as usual. What I really like about this style of clothing is that it's so comfortable to wear and can look cute on basically all body types. Rated up! :)
I absolutely loved this hub and enjoyed every little bit of fascinating fashion history =)
A great hub and I enjoyed reading it immensly.It is only in later years that my interest in history has grown so this hub was a treat.
Take care and here's to a long time to come of hub sharing.
Take care
Eiddwen.
prasetio - my friend, always so kind. Thank you very much.
tracy - you bet - boho is so beautiful and individual, great that it has lasted so long. Thank you!
sly - just went hunting at Good Will yesterday for a nice peasant skirt for summer but it was a no go. Thank you!
Om - and not only body types but the old gals look good in it too! Thank you!
Rose - I made this one because so many young people are interested in hippie style clothing, but I wondered if they understood it's old roots. Thanks!
Eiddwen - yes, history is fascinating. I love to try to understand how people looked. In many times past, everybody basically dressed the same - all tucked into corsets during Victorian times, for example. And it's great to know that there were outsiders. Thank you !
Beautiful clothes and practical too and cheap in some cases but the best thing is that you can hide a million flaws.So much more comfortable without those under pinnings!Good hub.Informative.
baygirl - it's funny how poverty created a classic fashion. Of course you have to have an artistic eye to make it look good. Thank you!
Thanks for the follow Dolores. I agree about the necessity to a bit of a fashion eye,and the pizzazz to pull it off.
Great as always, Dolores - I have been called "bohemian" myself but I don't think I fit into any of those styles. Of course, I might just have my own bohemian style but these are so very interesting!
I always wondered where "Bohemian" originated. Great article!
akirchner - Hi, Audrey - you don't have to dress like a hippie to have a bohemian soul. People can just see it in you.
nicomp - me too. My mother used to say that certain relatives were bohemian. When I was a kid, this made those people seem so interesting. My mother was amused by them, and there was a hint of admiration in that description.
What a fascinating look at cultural history through focusing on clothing/dress fashion! Thank you for this information, presented in such an interesting way.
Aficionada - thank you! I am so getting into this whole history of fashion thing in my hubs. But I wind up spending too much time on research, wandering down paths, and gathering information that I won' use. But clothing says a lot about what's going on in a time and place.
Very interesting information. Great hub, voted up.
Very interesting. I like the Boho Chic style but didn't know the history of it till now. Really good to know.
Dolores!! Wonderful hub!! I love both history and fashion. My college minor as Art: Fashion Desiging, and it's been both an occupation and a preoccupation almost as long as I remember. Mother and one of my sisters were also interested. I'm delighted that you're into the subject of the history of fashion, and this hub is a superior example! I love your style! You do this great justice!
I also devour history and the opera "La Boheme" which was mentioned is one of my favorites. I love Puccini!
I wanted to mention that I have a marvelous book on "History of Fashion". I've just been looking it up on Google to mention here, only to discover that it's now considered a rare book. I think the original edition I have may be gaining in value. There may be other editions, but even they don't seem to be currently in print. What a shame.
History of Fashion - by J. Anderson Black & Madge Garland ISBN 0-688-02893-4 WILLIAM MORROW & COMPANY, INC. New York 1975 400 pages. It is beautifully illustrated.
I found a list of "all sources" of the book @:
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?st=xl&ac=qr&src=
I can't tell if they are the same as mine. None have illustrations of the book or its dust cover. But mine is a beautiful "coffee table" edition which I actually got about the time it was published.
I love that bohemian look, though my wardrobe is rather different. hehe - I just bought some lovely all-cotton tie-dyed socks! haha. It's too hot to wear them right now, but they will be lovely in the wintertime!
I heard about Bohemian style sometimes back but I didn't know anything about its origination and many other facts about it that you have given in this hub.
Very informative and interesting hub. Appreciate your efforts to publish it.
Nellieanna - I own one book on fashion history but mostly haunt the library for info, as well as reading books on history, sort of the daily life in (name a time) books. Your book sounds great. I look for used fashion books in thrift stores, but no luck so far. Thanks!
Lovely planet - I love Bohemian style and wanted to find out just how it all got started so...Anyway, thank you!
Great hub! I've always loved the boho style, even after it was overused and misrepresented by celebrities a few years back. The Aesthetics seem like they were a super cool subculture :)
Goso - me too. It looks so pretty and is such a nice change from the typical fashions (or nonfashion) that we see every day. I love the Aesthetics, but there was a dark side - from alcoholism, to drugs, and anorexia, but that just makes the bunch more Gothically interesting, eh?
This was such an interesting journey through the history of the Bohemian way of life and style. I really enjoyed the read. I love the modern version of the Bohemian style, Boho. I've always liked it. Thanks for sharing.
Becky - thank you very much. glad you liked!
Very nicely done. Your observation that the lifestyle can be controlled by commercialising and packaging it is very true. It is also very deliberate and has knocked the guts out of many grassroots movements just as they were gathering a head of steam.
Paraglider - corporations can incorporate the facade of a counter culture in order to squash the authenticity of a movement, sort of like the Borg. Thanks!
Extremely interesting and voted Up and many other ways. You could have a clothing and accessories museum.
Greta information and interesting history about one of a great fashion that will never die!
I love Boho, and your hub was awesomely done! Informative, interesting, engaging, and well-written.
I started reading your Hub and suddenly there was nothing left to read and I realized I was so entertained with it I didn't notice the time going by! Really informative Hub, thank you for taking the time to lecture us about Boho.
I was not interesting in this topic but the way you write is really remarkable. I read hole hub just because of the way you wrote this hub. You have ability to develop interest of a reader. Great hub.
Dolores, I think it goes without saying why I'm here reading your hub based on my name alone. One of my other names on a dating website is Charm Bracelet Gypsy. Enough said. I have found this hub to incredibly interesting and now see that apparently I belong to a subculture in most ways with the exception of poor personal hygiene, lol. Sandals or barefoot, long skirts, eccentric jewelry including long earrings and many, oh many bracelets are part of who I am. Just call me a Bohemian! Thanks so much for this informative and interesting article. You put it together beautifully! Voted up and interesting.
Patty - what a great idea. I could drag out all my old crap and set one up in the back yard shed, haha! But I am sure there is a clothing museum somewhere. Something that I would love to see! Thanks!
ange - You betcha! thank you!
AC - Thank you very much!
gisel - so glad that you enjoyed!
john - really? wow, what a nice thing to say. I have found the same thing when reading people's hubs.
HippieQueen - ha - so you are part of the too many bracelets at once club too! My son told me that I can never sneak up on anyone which was a poor practice for a mother of 4. Thank you so!
I love this. I have always been intrigued with bohemian groups over time and itis ex irony to imagine being one of the suffering artists circa the moulin rouge, late 1800s time. Thanks for all of the great info and the beautiful artwork
vitalesweets - glad you enjoyed!
Love, love the Boho look. Thanks for such an informative hub!
I took a history of costume course in college and I found it fascinating how things that were worn hundreds of years ago still show their mark today.
Lady Summerset - thank you!
Jenna Estefan - I wrote this hub because I became interested in the whole Bohemian culture and I remember my great aunt mentioning Bohemians. But I did not realize until I did my research that the culture was 200 years old! Thanks!
The section "Origin of the Bohemians" is utterly fascinating. I never knew how this came about and you explicated it beautifully. I feel illumined!
The entire article is terrific—perhaps your best work. I just love it! Thank you. :D
James - well thank you very much! You are so kind. Maybe you are an old hippie at heart! Good to hear from you!
OK, I'm into Bohemian fashion but never thought there was some long history behind its style. Argh, even thought all of it started just in the 1970s! And as you've said Bohemian is not just a style but a lifestyle. Thanks for this hub!
kerlynb - thank you! Glad you enjoyed!
A very interesting and informative read! Your account of history of bohemian fashion is really fascinating. When I was in college, I was very much into bohemian fashion which was not out of choice but indifference to the on going fashion trends then! Bohemian fashion has a style of its own and you have very rightly said that the artist is himself or herself a piece of art!
thank you for sharing! voted up!
sonia - thank you. College is a great time to use fashion to express yourself. Once you are out in the working world, you often have to conform to a certain style of dress.
I think my style kinda' aligns with the Bohemain style. Not the modern Bohemian style as shown in the picture. I just like having a style that isn't representative of any trend.
Now...I can get what I call suited down...if I need to.
Ince again...I love your hubs on period trends in fashion...thanks for the history lesson!
imatellmuva - your picture is small and I can't really see you well enough but I do see well enough to recognize the Bohemian in you! You got your own style working! Thanks!
Wow... what a fabulous hub you have here. So much information with a beautiful presentation, too. I had no idea there was such a long history, and I was way off on the origins. I pretty much thought it was a hippy thing...
wordscribe - thank you! Hippie is historical! I loved the story of the origins of Bohemian style and did not, myself, realize how old it was.
Thanks for such a comprehensive hub about boho fashion and culture. I love the colorful styles and designs. It seems to me that bohemian fashion is becoming more and more mainstream and desirable, which then makes it less counterculture. What are your thoughts about that?
capalynn - I pointed that out at the end of the article. However, hand crafted goods are still out of the norm. Retail clothing may offer a Bohemian look, and the style may have become mainstream, ending the counter culture ideal, but it's still pretty! Thank you!
Ok i have to admit that even though i have been following you, i havent really read any of your hubs. So taking time to go through this, i really cant believe that i have denied my self such quality for some time now. So much information and well present facts about the History of Bohemian Clothes. I would have to bookmark this to read it again.
Cheers
rednickie - thank you. You were following me without reading any hubs? Odd. I usually follow people after I've read their hubs.
Loved your unbiased explanation of who the gypsies are.
This is a great hub. I like the juxtaposition of examples of the modern day hippie with the history of the bohemian style. This is so informative. Thanks for another terrific HubPages contribution Dolores Monet!
I didn't know there was so much history to the Bohemian style. You wrote a really great hub, loads of detail and I especially liked the images included. Have you written about Steampunk and/or cyberpunk fashion? Those would be a lot of fun to read more about.
That Grrl - I love the steampunk look, but am avoiding things if they are hard to illustrate. My fashion history hubs got started when I found an old magazine from 1932. Old pix are easier to use, there is no copyright problem. But I have a ton of hubs on historical costume - Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, 30's, 40's, 20's, 1914 - 1920, Civil War Era, Mourning Dress, and more. Thank you!
Gypsies are really great .This is an awesome post
So much information and what a great selection of photos. Thank you for a wonderful effort.Really enjoyed your post.
A very interesting hub. I think the shift from a lifestyle and counter-culture statement to a fashion trend is rather regrettable. It seems that true Bohemian has been dumbed-down and made into a commodity - like a lot of other legitimate movements.
Vanderleelie - in some ways yes. The unique quality is lost. But the idea that fashion dictators rule what we all wear, from the exact length of hemline to how we wear a hat has taken a back seat to what women really want. I think the influence of Bohemian types have opened the clothing market to so many more styles. Thank you!
i love this hub!! So interesting and a great history...makes me want to go pull out a peasant skirt and grow out my hair ;)
These guys are the best ..out of this world ,colorful .Thanks for such a wonderful hub
I loved your fashion history. It gives me an new respect for the Bohemian within. I will no longer hesitate to let the real me out. :)
jenniferg - well go for it, girl! Thanks!
htodd - oh they were. Thank you! But, many of them did get carried away with the drugs and sleeping around.
Mary - oh the inner us! To achieve the real bohemian look takes a lot of creativity and creativity = work. Ha ha!
Very informative. Also, isn't bohemia a geographical area in Germany or Czech republic?
I really appreciate that you have written such a well research content. Prior reading this hub, I actually had no idea about Bohemianism. But your article gives us an in-depth knowledge about their culture and origin. Its true that they used to posses a very distinctive style, but today it is no more considered as unconventional.
I love the way you've structured this article. You presented an informative and interesting piece here about Bohemian style. Well done :)
That is the most interesting hub i have read! Thank you
Ivona - yes, I mention in the hub that is where the descriptive word came from. People at the time thought that Bohemians and gypsies were one in the same.
bmukherjii - yes, in some ways. But if you see a "real" Bohemian walking down the street, you will notice. The style is not just wearing a long skirt, but the combination of creative and historical styles, hand made jewelry, and unique mixes of garments. Thank you!
CCameroso - thank you!
Scarlet - frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, haha. Thank you very much!
I found this Hub article particularly interesting since I've always been intrigued with the Bohemian style. It seemed to have a bit of a resurgence with "Moulin Rouge" the movie with Nicole Kidman about ten years ago and is making another round in the fashion world these days. I love to incorporate boho elements into many of my crafts,adding unexpected interest and charm. Your writing was a wonderful resource. Thanks!
-Create With Love
It's like a whole history class in one. I sure wish hubpages were available when i was schooling. I sure would have liked history much more. Thanks for a lovely hub and please keep it up.
Create - hmmm, never saw Moulin Rouge! Thank you for your comment!
pandula - thank you!
Great hub. It's nice to find out the origins of phrases we might otherwise take for granted.
There was also a movement around bohemian music in the 19th century .. the composer Dvorak composed his "Bohemian Rhapsodies" after traveling with folk musicians in Bohemia .. and of course Queen did their own take a century later. Thanks for the hub.
handy - thank you! I totally forgot about the Dvorak and how could I forget Queen! Just trying to stick to fashion. With most topics, one could go on and on!
juneaukid 12 months ago
This is a very thorough and fascinating hub. I very much enjoyed reading it.