World War II started from the year of 1939 and ended in the year of 1945. 


Any decade since World War II means after the year of 1945.


For this question, i thought about doing bohemian fashion. Probably due to my sister who love  Bohemian fashion. I remembered there was once i asked her whether she knows anything about bohemian fashion and she told me she does not know. Therefore, i was quite curious as to how bohemian fashion was born and why is it still so popular now? 


To my surprise,


Bohemian style actually started 200 years ago. It is usually associated with artists, writers, and intellectuals, bohemian culture combining Gypsy and other ethic clothing 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.


Appeared in France after the French Revolution.


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 (believed that Gypsies originated in Bohemia, an area of Eastern Europe and the Balkans) ThereforeSo, artist and intellectual were referred as Gypsy. 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.)


1830, 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. 

Bohemian style evolved into a cult of the individual, a person 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 related with the use of drugs and alcohol, bohemians ignore social convention, centering their lives on art.

In the 19th century, 

the Aesthetic Movement became a type of bohemian life style. 

Rebelled against the rigid social constraints of the Victorian era, embraced a style based on the clothing of the past, particularly medieval dress and oriental designs.

It was believed 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.

Fashion Elements of Bohemian Style

Bohemian style, now known 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

Figure 1: Bohemian style 1857 : (Source: doloresmonet.hubpages.com, n.d.)

20th Century Bohemian Style

Bohemian style came to be associated with young people wishing to separate 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.

Reference:

Monet, D. (n.d.) Boho - The Fashion History of Bohemian Style. 19 Jun 2012, from http://doloresmonet.hubpages.com/hub/BohoTheFashionHistoryofBohemianClothes#