Picture it: It’s 2005. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are running around New York City in between classes at NYU wearing sandals and shirred dresses under t-shirts and hoodies. Nicole Richie is shielding herself from the paparazzi with a Chloé Paddington bag, or walking down the street with Paris Hilton in a flouncy caftan. Sienna Miller is wearing a ruffled chiffon dress over jeans, a Mulberry handbag in the crook of her arm and a braided leather headband sitting on her forehead. The name for what you’re envisioning is boho-chic, and it just might have come back in full force.
Today at Paris Fashion Week, designer Chemena Kamali presented her debut collection for Chloé. It was a return to form in many ways, not least because Kamali spent her formative years as a designer at Chloé, first starting as an intern under Phoebe Philo and then returning as a designer for Clare Waight Keller in 2011. But also because Kamali’s ’70s flouncy hems, shirred necklines, snake necklaces, and wooden clogs harken back to an image of the Chloé of then, of the 2000s, that not only helped define fashion but also the look du jour. Everyone from the Olsens and Nicole Richie on the streets to Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen (Gossip Girl) and Mischa Barton as Marissa Cooper (The O.C.) on TV adopted this very Chloé look.
The possible (and impending) return of boho-chic has been a hot topic over at Vogue Runway for the last couple of seasons. First was the pressing question of what would come after Y2K—would it be Indie Sleaze or Boho-Chic? Two sides of the same coin. Then came the spring collections, where the jewelry—long-strand necklaces, raw crystals, toe rings—portended a return to the aesthetic.
The curious thing about boho-chic as an aesthetic as opposed to, say, Y2K, is that while it happened during a specific time period, it’s not intrinsically tied to it. There’s surely an element of nostalgia to its return, but more than a signifier for a time period, boho-chic is representative of a vibe. There’s a sense of abandon to the look that is offset by the delicacy and softness of the elements it features. It’s aspirational because it’s an aesthetic rooted in luxury fashion, but also in the sense that it’s simply fun and playful and sexy, and above all, intuitive. There’s a reason why practically every It-girl of the era was the poster child for boho-chic—everyone wanted to embody the mood. That Kamali’s collection hit the nerve is less because she looked to replicate a popular aesthetic but because she captured the essence of it that is natural to both her as a designer but also native to Chloé as a brand. That no one else is currently offering clothes in this very specific space, that was always dominated by Chloé, adds a freshness to the whole thing.
Boho-chic’s playfulness is an antidote to the primness of “quiet luxury,” and its relaxed and laid back vibes a welcome riposte to the so-called “mob wife” trend. Its sexiness is less gratuitous than that of Y2K, and its sensuality more compelling and personal than that of the voyeuristic sheerness that has taken over the runways. That people are craving softness in the face of so much heaviness and destruction in the world has also set the stage for this return. The spring 2023 collections and much of what we saw on the runway last year spoke to a sense of undoneness—boho-chic is simply following suit.
Ahead of her debut, Vogue’s Mark Holgate interviewed Kamali. He asked Kamali her thoughts on the possible return of boho-chic. “You know what I think that comes from?” she said. “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 terms of fashion, at some point boho was overdone and overused; it was past its peak and had gotten really commercial. The industry got tired of it, and it disappeared—but it’s an interesting question, because this longing for it comes from wanting to feel that spirit once more. It’s the moment for it again: People want to be themselves, live the way they live—defining your life for yourself.”
Scroll through for Chloé’s boho-chic, then and now.
