Back To Boho

It's a late-summer afternoon on Larchmont Boulevard in Los Angeles' leafy Hancock Park neighborhood, and small clusters of girls gathered in front of Jamba Juice are sweeping the sidewalk with their floor-length skirts. Their T shirts are oversize and piled on in layers. And their sunglasses, with lenses nearly the size of CDs, cover their teenage faces. On the next block, boys with shaggy hair below their ears, wearing rock T shirts from bands that were performing before most of their parents could drive, practice tricks on skateboards.

Eccentric dressing--with such distinctly bohemian touches as shoulder-grazing earrings, long, beaded necklaces and slouchy canvas bags--has been big all summer. Now the trend is heading back to school, even if that means tripping over a hem on the school-bus steps.

Fans of this latter-day hippie look say in many ways it's ideal for adolescents, who have competing needs both to stand out and to fit in. First, because of its many moving parts--layers of separates, stacks of jewelry, winding scarves--it's easy to personalize. Second, the loose, comfy style works for all body types. Third, it's not a trend driven by expensive brand names, so it works for all budgets as well. "Right now, this big wave of boho chic, a little hippie and vintage, allows you to belong and show who you are," says Jacqueline Azria-Palombo, creative director of CosmoGirl magazine. "It's about how you wear pins and scarves or slouchy boots. You can give it your own twist, and you don't have to be tall and skinny to wear it. It's a style with no rules, which is very liberating."

It's no surprise that the boho look has taken off in preternaturally casual California, but the style has spread across the country, thanks to such young celebrities as Mary-Kate Olsen, Sienna Miller and Jessica Simpson, who have been photographed in flowing '70s-era dresses, floppy hats and bangly jewelry. Olsen in particular seems to be channeling a style made popular 35 years ago (picture the young Joan Didion in the Haight), draping yards of fabric around her tiny frame.

Students at California's Santa Monica High are taking notes. "When you layer your shirts, you get a little tank top first and then put the longer shirts on top of it," says freshman Sara Gross, 14, of her approach to the boho style. "Some [of the tops] are button-up. Some have long sleeves and could be like a jacket, I guess. But they're all loose. They're like two times your size."

Retailers big and small have responded to the trend by turning to ethnic-clothing importers from around the globe. "We have an Indian importer who visits me every week with new things. They just keep selling," says Kristen Sato, who along with her mother owns the children's-clothing store Flicka in Los Angeles. "We sell long, tiered peasant skirts and tie-dyed tunic shirts, some with embroidery and beading. There's a lot of mixing and matching. We also sell rock T shirts by the truckload. They're $60, with band names on them like the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, and we sell them all day long for infants to size 16s. Led Zeppelin is a big request." Sato believes that the trend appeals to girls' love of costumes and dress-up. "They do it instinctively," she says. "It speaks to their need for comfort and sparkly, colorful clothes."