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Find Freedom and Romance with Bohemian Earrings

Amanda Coen

Freedom and Romance

The very mention of the word 'Bohemian', conjures up great things for me.

'Floral Jewels', from the Dreamy Delight Earring Range by Lapanda Designs - Parade Handmade

Freedom, countryside, wild horses and Summer days. I think of long skirts, petticoats and horse drawn wagons by firesides, filled with folksy cushions and cosy bed linen under dark starry skies. I could carry on with the imagery but I will spare you.

So what does 'Bohemian', actually mean?

 I have just looked it up..' A socially unconventional person, especially one who is involved in the arts' or 'Socially unconventional in an artistic way. Avant-garde, off-centre, alternative, eccentric, arty-farty, artistic and offbeat', among others. I like those words and they draw me in. It comes from the French 'Bohemien', Romani Gypsy. It stands to reason then.

There is definitely a place for classy and conventional but for me it is to be used sparingly. It is simply a style choice. I relish the freedom to choose every day whether I feel like wearing bohemian earrings or even some retro earrings from the sixties or seventies or mad hippy earrings in rainbow colours.

The only thing for sure is..

The only thing for sure is, there will be earrings worn unless by some accident or omission I forget to put them on.

'Floralicious' Bohemian Style Drop Earrings from the Dreamy Delights Range by Lapanda Designs - Parade Handmade

On some occasions I like to wear small pearl, crystal or silver studs. The kind I collected from my time working in Bewley's Cafes in Dublin years ago when all you were permitted to wear were studs.

So what's the difference between bohemian earrings, hippie earrings and retro earrings?

Retro earrings are, by the common definition, an 'imitation of a style or fashion from the recent past', such as ''retro 60's fashions''.

Going by that then, retro earrings could be anything from plastic button clip-ons, revived again in the 80's, to elegant pearl drops, to multi-coloured glittery hoops. Think Twiggy or Mary Quant. You could even think 'plastic'. Now that I think of it, the 80's and 90's offered very distinctive style which I adopted with flying colours.. I wonder if I could conjure up some evidence?.. Probably ill-advised...ha! Big floral metal style clip-ons, imitation classical pieces or plastic Art Deco imitations.

Bohemian earrings are essentially more gypsy in style.

Metal hoops, feathery, dangly, folksy and often incorporating natural materials. You would be forgiven for comparing bohemian style to hippy style. In style they both overlap it seems.

Heather Fantasy Dreamy Delights Earrings by Lapanda Designs - Parade Handmade
The origins of the two styles are totally different, however. The quintessential 'hippy or hippie', as you probably know, was a person usually young, who disapproved of and attacked middle-class values, institutions, nuclear weapons and the Vietnam war by embracing elements of Eastern Spirituality, free sex, vegetarianism, ecology, psychedelic drugs for the expansion of consciousness and community life. Or adopted the style and attitude but didn't really go in for the whole political thing. They often liked communal living. They were identifiable by their unconventional appearance including long hair. So, you see, Bohemian Gypsies and American Hippies were entirely different things. Nonetheless, the unconventionality of the two styles, at least to western senses, ensures the cross over of the two fashion styles. It is so evident that often the two adjectives are used interchangeably. A hippie earring or sometimes spelled 'hippy earrings', to most is going to be similar to a bohemian earring. 

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