The key trend on the spring-summer 2025 catwalks at Fashion Week seen this fall in Paris, the Bohemian Chic or “Boho Chic” style is having a real revival. But while fringed jackets, crochet or macramé details and draped silhouettes are back in fashion, the trend is taking on a more assertive streetwear feel.
Between the Disco I’m Coming Out exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris until the end of the summer and the bohemian chic trend, the Seventies have never been so fashionable.
It seems that the bohemian style championed by Chemena Kamali since her first fall-winter 2024 fashion show for Chloé has finally convinced many fashion houses to adopt it, such as Léonard Paris, Rabanne, Blumarine and even Alessandro Michele for his inaugural show at Valentino.
So this spring, we’re bringing out our flowing maxi dresses and raffia baskets, which we don’t hesitate to pair with leather details.
A fashion chestnut
The bohemian style is trendy this summer and was already last year.
It must be said that for 200 years, it has fired the collective imagination, establishing itself as the perfect embodiment of the “free spirit” and “effortless” for any self-respecting fashion marketer. And comfort is certainly an issue, but in these times of dubious style, we don’t shy away from the pleasure of making cool rhyme with elegance.
Contrary to popular belief, the bohemian style did not originate in Eastern Europe, in what is now the Czech Republic, formerly Bohemia-Moravia. No, its origins are more Parisian, to the point that we find the “effortless” look cherished by the inhabitants of the city of light, which became the signature of the House of Chloé from the very beginning.
We have to go back to 19th-century Paris where, on the eve of the French Revolution, most of the city’s artists, musicians and writers suddenly found themselves deprived of patrons and prestigious commissions. This small community lived in poverty in the Latin Quarter but began to create a new artistic and intellectual movement in which freedom was placed above all else. Without a penny, these young people are forced to opt for a nomadic lifestyle and for clothes that are not new or even patched.
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Paul Poiret liberated women’s bodies from the corset and converted them to a more unstructured style. He is thus credited with introducing some of the essentials of the bohemian style, such as the bell skirt, harem pants and the “lampshade” tunic.
The spirit of freedom and relaxation resurfaced in the late 1960s with the hippie movement. Young people then rallied around peaceful values, a rejection of consumerist materialism and advocated a return to nature.
We begin to see the emergence of floral dresses, ponchos, balloon sleeves and fringes. Moccasins, gladiator sandals… and even bare feet become trendy. Thrift shopping is valued and the bohemian style draws on multiple influences (weaves, patterns, embroidery, draping), whether South American weaving, Central Asian patterns, Eastern European embroidery or Indian draping. Patchwork is thus not only aesthetic, it is also cultural.
When he created the Coachella festival in 1999, Paul Tollett aimed to revive the “Peace and Love” spirit of the Woodstock festival of 1969. In the mid-2000s, it was at this same festival, in the middle of the Californian desert, as well as at Glastonbury in England, that the bohemian style seen on the it-girls of the time such as Sienna Miller, Kate Moss and Nicole Richie made an impression on the press and burgeoning social networks. The “outfit of the festival-goer” was born. Here, the bohemian style borrows from American references with flared skirts, layered necklaces, studded belts and high suede boots.
A gradual comeback from 2022
The return to favor of the bohemian style is a result of the growing success of second-hand products, the quest for authenticity and the omnipresence of nostalgia in cultural products. It must be said that it uses natural materials with a strong emphasis on linen, silk and cotton in clothing, while raffia, jute and rattan make up the accessories. The color tones also evoke nature with earthy colors such as beige, sand, olive green and brown.
And from 2022, the bohemian style began to make a comeback. But it wasn’t until Chemena Kamali was inducted into Chloé with her first fall-winter 2024 fashion show that madness took hold of the fashion scene. In the wake of the show, searches for the brand’s products soared by 37% in one week on TheRealReal, while sales took off by 130% compared to the previous month.
What the artistic director of the Parisian fashion house then proposed was nothing less than a time capsule and a powerful antidote to the overdose of streetwear and sportswear.
The idea of the new artistic director? To draw on the archives and bring together the Parisian style so dear to founder Gaby Aghion, the prairie girl, and a more rock look forged in particular by thigh-high boots, capes and headbands. In terms of accessories, minimalism is de rigueur with aviator sunglasses and a large fringed bag.
In January 2024, New York fashion journalist and designer José Criales-Unzueta predicted, “I think we are going to see the renaissance of boho chic. Enter the Olsen sisters in the late 2000s, running around New York, enter Serena Van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.”
The release in 2023 of the mini-series Daisy Jones & The Six on Amazon Prime, with its 70s aesthetic, already showed the way, rekindling a desire for paisley patterns and flared trousers.
The style that had once been the DNA of a few Houses including Chloé, Etro and Isabel Marant, then the exclusive domain of more recent brands such as Alberta Ferretti and Zimmermann, has finally been taken up by Rabanne, Blumarine and Valentino.
Even more surprising, the bohemian style is making a comeback thanks to fashion shows and not TikTok microtrends.
For fashion critic and podcaster Hunter Shires, this craze for bohemian style echoes “a desire for simplicity, familiarity and nostalgia.”
A revisited bohemian chic
Fashion is known for being an eternal cycle of renewal, but in its quest for novelty, the spring-summer 2025 style is changing the game.
On the catwalks, of course, a Léonard Paris continues to evoke the fantasized image of the 1960s-1970s “gypset” or “jet-setter” who went “to lavish parties in spectacular locations.” In this case, the artistic director Georg Lux was particularly inspired by the draped style of Elizabeth Taylor in the little-known film Boom (1968), in which she shares the limelight with her equally legendary husband, Richard Burton, against a Mediterranean backdrop. An enchanting world that, through the setting and the clothing style, recalls the Ibiza of the film More (1969) by Barbet Schroeder, which would inspire the entire 1970s and hippie culture.
Australian Zimmermann was inspired by another local film, Morning of the Earth (1971), a classic by Albert Falzon about the epic of surfing. The show opened with a navy blue organza dress adorned with a woven macramé bodice, both characteristic elements of the bohemian style.
In a psychedelic spirit, Leonard Paris dares to use vibrant prints and retro glamour to achieve sunny looks.
Others, such as Isabel Marant, also dare to use color with a tropical inspiration from the Amazon, where the fringes are like feathers and the dresses are like butterfly wings.
In the Rabanne fashion show, tie-dye in bold colors on dresses and T-shirts echoes hippie culture, while gold or floral maxi dresses stand alongside office outfits.
The bohemian look, with its dresses with flounces, the use of lace (for gloves) and little veils, is also cited by Alessandro Michele in his first Valentino fashion show to capture this melancholy bourgeoisie.
At the same time, Pinterest Predicts had warned us: 2025 would be synonymous with “Boho Moto”, the fusion of bohemian style and the biker world. The visual social network had thus noted at the end of 2024 that searches for the combo had risen by +40%.
This hybrid look offers a vision of bohemian style that is both romantic and more rebellious than ever. Leather and studs are combined with flowing dresses. This season, it’s all about playing with contrasts and volumes, balancing the two worlds according to the Pareto principle (80-20).
At Chloé, jackets conceal lace outfits that have nothing to hide and go perfectly with the puffy knickers from the fashion house’s archives. For her part, Isabel Marant combines jacquard skirts of ethnic inspiration and chiffon dresses with smooth or fringed leather jackets, while slouchy suede boots and leather gladiator sandals decorated with studs take to the catwalk.
For Zimmermann, the moto-boho trend translates into short trench coats and utility shorts with suspenders that give structure to viscose shirt dresses.
In short, this season, biker jackets, fringed vests and biker boots go perfectly with flowing blouses and other maxi ruffled skirts. The advantage of this soft femininity playing on the layering of pieces, characteristic of the bohemian style, is that as temperatures rise, the thickness of the fabric can be less…
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Featured photo: © Zimmerman – Leonard Paris – Chloé
