Boho is back: How Chloé is reviving the early aughts aesthetic

The fashion world often waxes lyrical about the idea of uniforms. Namely, a formula for getting dressed that’s rolled out day after day that is not only easy but speaks volumes about your aesthetic. These are usually pared-back. Black. White. Denim. Stoic? If not, they’re sedate. Fashion designer Carolina Herrera lives for a white shirt, the writer Fran Lebowitz’s perennial get-up is a Savile Row jacket, cowboy boots and Levi’s 501s (excellent if you ask me), Karl Lagerfeld rarely strayed from black suiting. It chimes well with the current appetite for capsule dressing and simple but luxurious basics. However, on the Chloé autumn winter 2024 catwalk during Paris Fashion Week, a different kind of uniform was being celebrated. One that threatens to topple quiet luxury from its ivory (correction: ecru) tower and finally (God willing) put paid to the Y2K fashion trend. 

Viewers digesting the show via their handsets did a double take at the footwear on the front row: a sea of wooden heel wedges, identikit pairs of the same black sandals, were worn by the crème de la crème of attendees. It was arguably the moment of the season. French actress Clémence Poésy and model Georgia May Jagger, as well as veterans of the 1970s, models Jerry Hall and Pat Cleveland, mingled with the undisputed queen of boho chic Sienna Miller. While on the runway, new creative director Chemena Kamali presented an inaugural collection that revived the carefree magnetism of the Chloé it girl. As for the clothes? The clothes! It was a luxurious swirl of pastel chiffons, cocooning faux fur jackets, toffee-hued leather boots that stretched above the knee and two-toned, high-waisted denim jeans – those were paired with lace tops boasting flouncy ruffled sleeves. It made me want to spark up a Marlboro Light and shrug on a diaphanous blouse (I don’t smoke, but there is a sense that I’d look far more louche in these outfits.) The message was clear: boho is back, bébé. 

But, you say, fashion always dips a toe in bohemia. Is this really a news story? In short: yes. While brands such as Isabel Marant and BA&SH continue to bang the drum of the rebellious, romantic dresser, her light has been somewhat dimmed of late. Instead, brands such as Rouje, all berets and baguettes, fetishise the French girl aesthetic. West Coast label Dôen carefully describes itself as Californian and nostalgic. Perhaps, the concept has become tarnished, trashed by festival wear; cheap, synthetic dresses churned out by fast fashion brands. However, Kamali’s iteration was convincing enough to, arguably, reset the zeitgeist. 

Boho is an interesting proposition to consider; skinny scarves, long necklaces and – quelle horreur! – Serena van der Woodsen-coded floppy hats (in my twenties, a friend once informed me that a floppy hat wasn’t a replacement for a personality: to this day, I stan). It’s all so … of a time. A time that’s long passed, in fact. Precisely, it’s been twenty years since Sienna Miller sashayed around Glastonbury in rave sunglasses, a studded belt and Uggs earning herself the title of the queen of boho. Conversely, an image of Miller at Glastonbury in 2022 shows her wearing a string of Chanel pearls: how far the bohemians have come. Suffice to say, bohemia is now a far more polished proposition. 

To be fair, it needs to be. For 95% of the people reading this, remembering boho from the 2000s is enough to induce a full-blown case of the ick. “The wording might turn you off,” says Anne Tucker, co-owner of Costume. The boutique in Dublin’s Castle Market has nurtured its own brand of polished bohemia for the past 27 years with brands like Isabel Marant, Zadig & Voltaire and Jérôme Dreyfuss as stalwarts. “When it’s a reinvention of something people wore at a different time, as a different version of themselves, it can be off-putting as they may not want to be that person again,” she says. 

Dare I say it, the new iteration appears practical. “It’s more refined than what we saw Kate Moss in twenty years ago,” says Libby Page, market director at Net-a-Porter. “For starters, pieces have more shape on the waist. It’s also less about dresses and more about separates,” Tucker says. Printed, flouncy blouses are worn with wide and loose cotton-poplin trousers with drawstrings or barrel-leg jeans. For Tucker, the silhouette is a testament to the current hippie-ification of fashion. “Everything this season is loose and soft and a bit hippy. That lends itself to boho, it’s easy,” she says. 

“Past boho said, ‘I’m a cool, laid-back chick who doesn’t (ostensibly) care that much about putting herself together and knows how to party with the best of them’,” the Canadian fashion writer Monica Ainley tells me from Paris, where she lives on the Left Bank with her family. Undoubtedly, the energy is different this time around. “Kamali’s Chloé brought a more elevated, bolder, more powerful feel to the boho look in general. She contrasted dainty lace tops with perfectly tailored black trousers ideal for any work engagement, adding wrist bags ideal for the woman who is busy with career, kids, the lot, to know the appeal of being hands-free,” Ainley says. Equally, the modern woman doesn’t want to cosplay as a hippie, she wants pieces that adapt to her existing wardrobe. Key building blocks such as evening wear, tailoring and denim need to be addressed. “In the new era of boho, earthy tones complement tailored silhouettes, as seen at Tove, Saint Laurent and Victoria Beckham,” Page says. 

 That being said, there are parts of the old look that endure. An image of Miller in 2004, all tanned legs and long bangs (hands up if you spent years trying in vain to recreate this fringe: there should be a support group), in a cut-off denim mini and cowboy boots is casual and high on appeal. It wouldn’t look amiss as a street-style shot from Copenhagen Fashion Week. As Ainley notes, perhaps the reason we’re only too keen to re-embrace the trend is because we still hold a candle to Miller, peak boho era, as the zenith of cool. It was more than a look, but a louche way of being that held – and, in the age of anxiety, holds – unyielding allure. “It feels like yesterday, probably because it had such a profound effect on my style at the time. I remember being completely obsessed with Sienna Miller’s style during her Alfie and Jude Law era and going to great lengths to find similar vintage looks,” she says. 

Speaking of vintage, the boho look is one of few trends that capitalises on things looking old, something to remember when the fashion world serves us up another trend cycle, gleaming in its appeal. In fact, the more dusted around the pieces the better. Think: an artfully worn-in leather jacket or a pair of pre-loved cowboy boots. Thankfully, sustainability is prevalent since the boho girls of yesteryear got their rocks off via Kate Moss for Topshop: Chloé was the first luxury fashion house to be green-lit for a notoriously rigorous B-Corp certification. Perhaps the ethos of modern-day bohemia is a sense of style that doesn’t sacrifice the earth. Albeit, at a particular price point: the brand’s bi-material tank dress crafted from light textured silk gazar costs a cool €5,200. (In the meantime, there’s always Vestiaire Collective.) Meanwhile, Tucker believes a Marant piece is the ultimate slow fashion investment. “Her clothes are well priced for how long they last. While brands like Chloé have had different designers, Marant has been the same for the last 20 years. Her clothes fit very well. They do what they are supposed to do: if something is meant to be oversized it will be fitted the right way without drowning you. They never really date – I have pieces from 15 years ago and they are still cool. It’s quite magical, really,” she says. 

Down to brass tacks: how can one honestly wear this look if they’re not a) going to All Together Now b) 23 or c) all of the above? Ainley advises to go the French route. “The Paris answer to the boho it girl is a little less the messy-blonde, eyeliner-loving, Glasto-mud traversing type, more the Left Bank terrace-hopping basket-stuffing, makeup-forgoing, fringe-snipping stomper who is a master of denim-wearing,” Ainley says. “I predict this summer she’ll get out a Chloé AW24-inspired lace or silk top, semi-transparent (no bra necessary) and wear it with the perfect pair of cream vintage Levi’s, or jean shorts and Soeur Paris flats.” 

Key pieces, according to Page, include sheer dresses, lace hosiery, fringing, romantic ruffles and oversized sunglasses. But if you can only buy one piece make it the Jerry bag by Jérôme Dreyfuss. “It comes with removable tassels,” Tucker says, not a trace of irony in her voice. A good option depending on how much you want to dial up your bohemian alter ego. Just don’t be surprised if she upends your expectations: the Chloé girl was dreamed up in the 1950s by Gaby Aghion as an alternative to the stuffy regalia of the couture collections; rebellion runs in her veins. She may no longer be wearing a faux fur while smoking a fag. “No,” Tucker says. “She’s wearing Birkenstocks picking her kids up from school.” My, how the bohemians have grown up.