Why the boho, rock-goddess aesthetic lives on

Bohemian or boho fashion has its roots in the hippy movement of the late 1960s. “Informed by the 19th and early 20th-Century obsession with the adventurous young adults from the US and UK who ventured to North Africa or the old Silk Road, bringing back with them exotic-seeming traditional garments,” says Helms. “Once home, they mixed these items with jeans and antique clothes picked up at markets, creating a ragbag, ethnic aesthetic that marked them as not being part of ‘normal’ society – through their clothes, music and lifestyle they were forming a counterculture. Their clothing choices were a visible sign to the rest of society of their beliefs – politically, socially, environmentally.”

What started out as an act of rebellion and individuality soon became mainstream, influencing designers and mass market manufacturers.

In the 70s, stars like Stevie Nicks put their own spin on the look – with a style described by the LA Times as “an amalgam of goth hippie, bohemian Californian girl and Victorian priestess”.

It’s an aesthetic that’s since influenced Florence Welch, and also Taylor Swift – who has been wearing a selection of Stevie-esque, floaty chiffon dresses for the Folklore section of her current Eras tour.  

Nicks is also a big inspiration for the “whimsigoth” trend that took hold on TikTok last year and is still going strong – a look that blends 70s bohemia with more gothic influences from the 80s and 90s.

“Whimsigoth is looking to the more witchy trends of the 1990s, which in turn were inspired by Stevie Nicks’ whole style oeuvre – from her late 1970s more ballerina-inspired styles to the witchy romanticism of 1983’s The Wild Heart album to the more ornate Victorian witchiness of Stevie in the late 1980s and 90s,” says Helms.

With all these looks, there’s an element of dress-up that’s appealing to new generations, says Ibberson. “With aesthetics like whimsigoth, and there’s also grunge fairycore which is quite similar, they all have this whimsical element. I think that’s what draws [Gen Z] to it. It’s a lot more playful.”