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Above: The new bohemian casual is sexy, strong and feminine thanks to a military influence. Below: Ethnic prints, wavy hair and the return of the natural or higher waist are trends.
Above: Actual hippies at a happening, note natural hair and bright colors. Below: The very bohemian Marianne Faithfull and some random dude she later dumped.
While I applaud the new hippie fashion trend, I pause to consider it in a cultural context. It's a feminine, sexy and wearable look. It's adaptable for work or play and flattering to a range of sizes and ages. Retailers from Neimann Marcus to Wal-Mart are selling this trend. It's a look, like preppy oxfords, that's endured for over 30 years. A look you can keep wearing, in a modified form, until you die.
Today's modern bohemian look has late 60's counter culture roots. Don't confuse it with the mid 60's Austin Powers drag, also beloved by John Waters. In the late 60s, when the bohemian look was in full flower, America was involved in a long, lingering, conflict that split the masses. In 2006, America is in a similar overseas battle and fashion is returning to empire waists, beaded necklines and soft flowing wavy hair. While hippie hair was barely groomed, and very natural, today's sexy waves shine and bounce with health, vigor and product. Modern consumers want natural ingredients in their products, while the trend used to be for the PERSON to be natural.
Emo girls are exempt from this look. They have to worry about how to stop the genocide of chickens and what to wear with a black hoodie. If you know an emo gal, ask if she'll trade you your old flat iron for the birthday espadrilles she got from her mom.
The hippies of the late sixties were a colorful lot, literally. They mixed colors with abandon and embraced Pucci and paisley prints. In 2006 the Bohemian look is more monochromatic and deftly folds in a military feel. Cargo pants, the 90's holdover that put Old Navy in the black, are paired with gauzy pretty tops. Shades of olive and deep khaki predominate with punches of rust, metallic glints and breezy gauzy beige. Paisley prints in these muted shades predominate. Though turquoise and orange flare up, brights are minor color players in this trend.
The new boho trend allows for all sort of figure flattering tricks. Tummy bulge? Wear an empire waist. Pear shaped? Wear cargos or an A-line skirt. Big arms? Shrug or poncho them. Bea Arthur syndrome? Wear the new dashiki, the tunic and don't dare belt it.
Accessorize as needed to accentuate, your lithe neck, your pretty cleavage, your slim waist, your long fingers or whatever it is you got, that you need to work. Dingily dangly stringy necklaces, wedges or espadrilles and bags that scream HEY LOOK AT ME are the must have accessories. Ethnic accents work especially well.
But where do these trends come from? What inspires the military flavor to the season's look? It's as if the war, in Iraq, in Viet Nam, is being acknowledged without having to choose sides for or against. The conflict is as disembodied and removed from our live as it was in last seasons of M*A*S*H. And ya know, Hot Lips Houlihan, with her flowing Veronica Lake hair, full lips, low waist olive drab pants, and white t shirt would like right at home cruising for miso at Whole Foods. Do the ethnic accents hint we've assimilated the enemy or just trade with them.
From Clothes to Culture
The late 60's was a time when medicine had provided several ways to avoid unintended birth and venereal disease did not kill. My how times have changed. LOVE INs have been replaced with SHOCKING TEEN SEX PARTIES. The birth control patch is a killer and emergency contraception is shooed away into a dark corner. Newscasters shriek alarm about teenagers having oral sex. One survey has found that 1/3 of all women under 24 has had anal sex. What? Young people have sex?
Obviously the repressive, just say no, don't ask don't tell mantras of the conservative mainstream are being ignored by yet another generation of young people doing their own thing. Some in authority have tried to give messages of safety over abstinence but they didn't get very far. According to the CDC we should be glad oral sex is the hot new thing, because it's far less likely to transmit STDs than butt sex is.
Contemporary bohemian media darlings don't have the overtly free sensuality of the 60's bohemians. Mary Kate Olsen is a little hippie in flowing layers and giant glasses. But she'd never touch a Mars bar, even biblically, allegedly, ala Marianne Faithfull. As hotties for their day, and sometime Boho bedecked babes, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie are no match for Catherine Denueve and Brigette Bardot. Yes, the Simple Lifers have a higher Q rating, but they don't have IT, that ethereal, living breathing, natural sexy thing. When she wasn't strung out on junk, Janis Joplin exuded a natural and earnest sexuality. Even if naked and rolled in an oriental rug Jessica Simpson just exudes.
(((I keep referring to the ultimate bohemian girl stunt, in which Marianne Faithfull was asleep and naked at her and the Rolling Stones pad when the cops did a drug bust. The British press really ran with the story and soon she was rumored to have been pleasuring herself with a Mars bar before being smuggled out, naked, rolled in an Oriental rug. She was pretty, well dressed, and obviously a drug crazed sex fiend. We love her. She's done some interesting stuff-check her out)))
Although sex satturates the contemporary media, it's not as naturally sexy as is was in the late 60's. Pam Anderson and Kate Moss are extreme examples of unnatural and thus less threatening sexuality. Kate Moss is pretty and lithesome. Her childlike features and slim build are free of literal womanly baggage, as are most fashion models, ever since Twiggy. Conversely, Pam Anderson is an over feminized cartoon, starting to resemble a drag queen. As such she's no more threatening to juniors morals than Betty Boop. But ever ask Grandpa about Betty Boop and see him lick his lips and get that funny look? Icky.
Perhaps the repressive cultural mores and distorted media images of women and sexuality are driving the bohemian fashion trend as much as the war. Maybe the simmering earth mother sensuality of a natural bosom bobbing behind a gauzy peasant blouse and the pretty strength of long hair and army pants is what a nation at war with itself needs.