The year is 2004, and is stomping the streets of Notting Hill in slouchy boots and a frilly white dress—it could be circa 1960 vintage, or something from ’s spring 2004 collection for . A hundred or so miles to the west, Kate Moss is backstage at Glastonbury in tiny shorts, a waistcoat, and a studded vintage belt—a cool and loose style soon described as “new bohemian.” (Miller, in her handkerchief dresses, tops, and coin belts, co-headlines this bill.
) Stateside, are running around Manhattan wearing sandals and ruffled dresses under T-shirts and hoodies; on the West Coast, Jessica Alba walks the red carpet in a chiffon dress over jeans, with Kate Hudson captured by paparazzi in a breezy white iteration, a fringed suede handbag on her shoulder. Boho chic, as this phenomenon came to be known, is a lot of things: It’s an undone, laid-back kind of cool, and while some would argue that it’s never exactly gone away (female-helmed labels from and to have been riffing on this vibe for years), two decades after Sienna and Kate and all the rest, it’s back in full force, led by Chloé designer i. Kamali’s debut for the house at the fall collections in Paris in February seemed to articulate this nascent yearning for easier, lighter, free-spirited clothes.
Kamali spent her formative years as a designer at Chloé—as an intern under Philo and then as a designer for Clare Waight Keller—and her ’70s flouncy hems, shirred necklines, snake necklaces, and wooden clog.
