I just found this thread! I grew up with a very realxed 'hippie' sort of childhood (small town in the mountains, our neighbors lived in a teepee, free-thinking parents, made our own clothes)... though I'm not really into the lifestyle anymore, and I work in a bank so it's hard to dress how I'd like with their restrictions, I looooove hippie and bohemian styles and lifestyles. I have some great images I'll try and find a way to scan for you guys.
The lifestyle sortof lends itself to the dress I find... you can't really go hike four hours to sit in natural hotsprings in really tidy, clean clothes, so you need some jeans you don't mind torn and shirts that are gonna be warm and cozy when you're camping in the snow. And you need to be cool and comfortable at 4-day music festivals where you'll be in the sun and dust.
To me bohemian can be just a very loose, free-flowing way of life - a sort of never-settling-down much like gypsy lifestyle. But then it also seems very 'beatnik'.
My siblings and I have all still maintained a part of our relaxed childhood in our style... we all still wear flowing skirts and lots of beads and stone jewelry and layers of hemp clothing and so on, among our everyday work-uniforms. We all have our own unique style, but it's very obvious to those who meet us that we have a definite 'hippie' streak in us. (Though it always seems to confirm this when they find out we grew up in BC Canada
). And I'm soooo with you on the 'thank-goodness it's over' thoughts about the 'boho/hippie' trend that went by a while ago, hitzpink - that made me feel so uncomfortable in my clothes when all of a sudden it was this huge trend - I felt like I must seem to be 'jumping on the bandwagon' even though I've always been into these things - even when people looked at me funny for wearing them!
The reason I started writing this though! was in response to gius's post above... 'do guys here dress this style?'
When I read that my first thought.. Yes! My brother has a very hippie/rock style, and will wear hemp shirts with Elvis sunglasses or HunterSThompson style outfits, Indian clothes (those long white outfits the men wear over there), middle-east accents and Tibetan clothes... and one of my sisters' boyfriends is very much a hippie.
He wears hemp pants, even skirts and sarongs in the summer, leather sandals, torn up rock concert shirts that just suit him (hes a construction worker), old plaid shirts, patchwork bags, guitar always with him, jeans that have been torn and stitched up with contrasting thread, and a shaggy, curly mop of dark hair. I picture him as a sort of Neil Young/Led Zepp/Woodstock/mountain man. And he looks great, I couldn't imagine him any other way!
Now I'm off to read the rest of the thread... got too excited finding this, hehe!
such a great sensation
