What Kind of Bohemian Woman Are You?

What is a bohemian woman?

There's so much more to being a bohemian than just dressing the part. Bohemianism is a lifestyle and everyone does it in their own unique way; but like with all subcultures, bohemians can be broken down in more detailed categories. Inspired by Lauren Stover's classifications of the different types of bohemians in her book Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge, I present to you the five different kinds of bohemian women.

HIPPIE

A common misconception about bohemians is that they're all hippies, but in fact it's the other way around. Did you know that bohemians (subculture) came waaaaay before hippies? Yeah! Dating back to the writers, artists, and poets during the Victorian era, the bohemians spawned the beats in the 50s, and from the beats came hippies in the 60s and 70s!

Hippies are friendly, generous people who love the Mother Earth and all her creatures big and small. As a hippie woman, you will go above and beyond to reduce your footprint by becoming as self-sustainable as possible by recycling, upcycling, gardening, and even going off-grid completely.

You probably have a small group of like-minded friends, or you're a total loner doing your own thing, never letting society's opinion of you affect how you dress or act (or shave!). You prefer natural material for your clothing including cotton, hemp, silk and high-quality leather that will last a lifetime.

CLASSIC You do whatever the heck you want. You are rebellious by nature and struggle with following rules at work, school, home... life. If the fashion magazines say long blonde hair is in, you're most likely to grab the nearest pair of scissors, cut a few inches, and rush to the nearest drugstore for a box of jet black hair dye. You cringe when someone refers to your clothing as "boho-chic" because your pattern mixing, ethnic jewelry, and vintage clothing are a true expression of who you really are - NOT a fashion trend. Sometimes people are intimidated by you because they fear what they don't understand and you are the epitome of unique. Whether through prose or poetry, art, fashion, music, or even knitting, you must express yourself creatively or you will go insane. You're hedonistic and resourceful so you know how to live like a queen on a pauper's budget and darling, you do it well!

GYPSY You're restless, you get bored easily and the travel bug often bites you hard. Because you're a bohemian, you are naturally very clever and find all kinds of tricks and hacks to travel near and far on the cheap. You can fit a week's worth of clothes in a carry on and when you get to your destination, you still manage to look like an absolute goddess. You're not fond of mainstream destinations, but you'll go wherever an $80 plane ticket takes you when the itch to get out becomes too strong. While abroad, you don't buy ethnic clothes to collect and store away, you buy clothes from the natives to actually wear. Your style can only be described as "global." Your home decor consists mostly of your findings during travel, and you could never part with a single piece of it as it's all priceless treasures to you.

POET You're an eccentric introvert who's often lost deep in thought. Your home is your sanctuary and you prefer the company of cats over people and will choose a quiet night at home with a book over a raging house party any day. You're a night owl and when the leaves one the trees start to change colors in autumn you burst with joy inside. Yes, you adore autumn, but we'll never see you on Instagram posing with a pumpkin spice latte because you hate following trends... (that doesn't mean you wont stealthily slip in and out of a Starbucks to get one in desperate times, though). Dark and stormy evenings are one of your life's greatest little joys and people often refer to you as a goth but you're far too eclectic to fit into that box. You mostly express yourself with poetry and photography. You thrift shop for records, not because it's "cool" but because you'd rather lick a toad than listen to mainstream music. You prefer to wear dark colors, maybe even all black, but you don't believe in a "basic" wardrobe; your style is quite dramatic and unique.

GODDESS Your body is a temple and you care for it inside and out all day every day. I'm very certain your exercise of choice is yoga or dance, and if you're not a vegan, I'd be willing to bet that those are free-range eggs in your fridge. You start your day with a smoothie and end it with your favorite nighttime yoga sequence and/or meditation.  You love to wake up early and bask in the quiet of morning. You are calm and focused and can't be bothered much with current fashion trends and pop culture. You like to dress simply and comfortably because you never know when the urge might strike you to lead an impromptu yoga session in the park. You prefer kombucha over coffee, and those crystals and stones in your window sill aren't just for decoration... they're charging.

What kind of bohemian woman are you?

Let me know in a comment below!

PS. Stay tuned for a men's version, coming soon!