It’s hardly groundbreaking to suggest that clothes can influence how we move through the world. Your favourite blazer sets you up for a job interview, while your new Balenciaga Le City bag allows ample space for a laptop so that you don’t spend the day balancing a tote on each shoulder, constantly bumping into fellow colleagues and commuters. And that swishy boho skirt? Well, doesn’t it make you want to skip around a grassy field (hayfever be damned), belt out Florence and the Machine and stay out for just one more drink.
What started off as a one-sided love affair with my vintage hitch skirt from AllSaints has recently developed into a fully-fledged obsession with boho skirts that look ever-so-slightly dishevelled and “undone.” They’re often tiered and almost always made from a light-as-air material that gently swishes as you walk. My boho skirt has recently freed me from my own summer styling rut, and it seems I’m not alone.
Just the other week, Vogue’s news writer Olivia Allen declared that this summer’s boho skirt is “long, layered and slightly sheer.” The aesthetic, she explains, is “less fringing and questionable fedoras, and more lace slips.” Another wise colleague, Joy Montgomery, recently declared that we are having a “haute hippie summer,” describing its overall mood as “minimalist surf hippie, but make it bouji.” She explains that this look sits in the middle of a venn diagram of “Calvin Klein’s ’90s greyscale minimalism, as championed by The Row, the craftcore stylings of Gabriela Hearst, and of course, boho’s bells and whistles comeback tour, courtesy of Chemena Kamali at Chloé.”
A boho skirt is many things: it’s Sienna Miller sitting front row at Chloé and Kate Moss at Glastonbury, with a sprinkling of Coachella. It’s the dark romance of Simone Rocha’s tiered, lace skirts, Molly Goddard’s tulle-covered takes and Isabel Marant’s steadfast commitment to hippie-chic. However you define it, one thing is clear: the boho skirt is back – and with more ways to style it than ever before. Scroll on for six ways to wear your boho skirt with abandon this summer.
Summer in the city
Beach-side skirting
Euro-casual
Elevated boho
Festival-ready
Heatwave dressing
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