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Original poster

What does 'bohemian' mean to you?

20 replies

Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 00:43

I don't mean as a passing trend or outfit, but more the essence of it, as a way of being, which of course can involve home, clothing and attitudes.
I'm curious as to what it means to different people.

Do you consider yourself to be bohemian?
It seems odd, perhaps a bit pretentious to call oneself bohemian, and yet if we are, or have leanings, we must secretly be at least vaguely aware of it somehow Grin

DP and I are both artists; income painfully sporadic but decent enough. House in utter disarray with small areas of calm. Dust loves us.Vaguely ashamed of it. Books, history and oil paint are my life. Prefer second hand clothes in lovely fabrics, especially cashmere and velvet. Hate smalltalk. Prefer anything old to new. Helena Bonham Carter might be my style icon. Do not descend from a long line of aristocrats, but DP eats spaghetti with a spoon Shock

We may or may not qualify, but had never thought about it until last week after reading an article about Tove Jansson and realising that in my dreams I am the character Lolly Willowes from the story by Sylvia Townshend Warner (highly recommend!)

Thoughts?

OP posts:
FlibbertyGiblets · 03/12/2021 00:50

Bohemian to me is London Virginia Woolf era racy posh peeps exchanging partners at an exhausting rate. Big flowers feature, not dahlias, peonies, yes.
Probably I am thinking of the Bloomsbury group actually. [Ponders]

FlibbertyGiblets · 03/12/2021 00:51

Now I will look it up.

Hairyfriend · 03/12/2021 00:53

I might be completely wrong, but when I hear Bohemian, I imagine the following:

  • Someone who has never had a 'career or profession' but worked in a variety of generally poorly paid jobs. Or 'the arts' or 'an actor' but working in a bar or other jobs to make money till their big role comes along
  • Has an eclectic dress sense (full length skirts) and house with mis-matched colours and themes or odd bits from here or there
  • As a hobby plays the accordion or learns belly dancing
  • Burns incense, has crystals and/or salt lamps.
Original poster
Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 00:59

@Hairyfriend

I might be completely wrong, but when I hear Bohemian, I imagine the following:
  • Someone who has never had a 'career or profession' but worked in a variety of generally poorly paid jobs. Or 'the arts' or 'an actor' but working in a bar or other jobs to make money till their big role comes along
  • Has an eclectic dress sense (full length skirts) and house with mis-matched colours and themes or odd bits from here or there
  • As a hobby plays the accordion or learns belly dancing
  • Burns incense, has crystals and/or salt lamps.
That sounds like a cartoon depiction Grin I do know someone who used to teach belly dancing though, back in the 90's!

Although many artists certainly do have a full time career/profession.

OP posts:
immersivereader · 03/12/2021 01:02

Hmm, I'm not bohomeian but my house is scruffy and I don't mind a bit of disorder. Is that the same thing?

HeddaGarbled · 03/12/2021 01:06

Everyone hates small talk. You have to do the small talk to feel your way before you start on the big talk. People who start with big talk think they’re interesting but really they’re insensitive.

BobCatBob · 03/12/2021 01:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mosbiusdesigns · 03/12/2021 01:07

Can you please post a video of your dh eating spaghetti with a spoon, I just about manage with a fork so I need to see how it's done! 😆

Original poster
Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 01:10

@HeddaGarbled

Everyone hates small talk. You have to do the small talk to feel your way before you start on the big talk. People who start with big talk think they’re interesting but really they’re insensitive.
it was lighthearted. To dislike smalltalk does not mean one plunges into big talk, whatever that even is. there's possibly a nice, comfy middle ground.
OP posts:
givethatbabyaname · 03/12/2021 01:12

I think you have some of the aesthetic of a bohemian lifestyle.

Bohemian to me means a free- or liberal-thinking intellectual. Liberal in the C18-20th meaning, not its current definition. So concerned with this type of intellectualism are bohemians, in fact, that they don’t have the time or headspace for such earthly concerns as housekeeping, or a healthy diet, or fashion. The long flowing skirts and loose or no cravats let’s were a deliberate and considered departure from prevailing, restrictive fashions. It’s come to be an identifier of a bohemian lifestyle, along with the artistry and the lack of basic housekeeping. But without the intellectual pursuit, these things are just a fashion choice and bad diets and poor housekeeping.

Looking like a hip hop artist doesn’t make you a hip hop artist. The hip hop artist just is, and that’s the style he or she has.

Original poster
Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 01:12

@Mosbiusdesigns

Can you please post a video of your dh eating spaghetti with a spoon, I just about manage with a fork so I need to see how it's done! 😆
He's a contrary bugger, i think he does it just to baffle me. Unless in company he will never use a knife, just plunges into meat with the side of a fork or spoon.
OP posts:
Hairyfriend · 03/12/2021 01:13

OP- I wasn't being critical at all BTW and its not a cartoon depiction. You asked the question and this is my impression of what Bohemian is!

My description is of a family friend whom I have always seen as Bohemian. She learns belly dancing, wears long skirts, has an eclectic, mis-matched house and always been a bit 'airy, fairy'.

Meh2020 · 03/12/2021 01:13

Op - is that twirling the pasta, using a fork, on the spoon? I’m in no way bohemian and both me and 8 year old eat spaghetti like this. If it’s just a spoon I am absolutely with the other poster and want to see a video!

As for the question… rich, hippy, drug dabbler, someone that coasts - but can afford to because they are rich.

HarrisonStickle · 03/12/2021 01:16

Rich people who lounge around all day talking about Proust and not bothering to wash.

Original poster
Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 01:21

@Hairyfriend

OP- I wasn't being critical at all BTW and its not a cartoon depiction. You asked the question and this is my impression of what Bohemian is!

My description is of a family friend whom I have always seen as Bohemian. She learns belly dancing, wears long skirts, has an eclectic, mis-matched house and always been a bit 'airy, fairy'.

oh no i didnt take it as criticism, it really fascinates me:)

my belly dancing friend was lost to memory. i do think the 90's encouraged a bit of bohemianism, which many scoff at now. we live in cynical times by comparison.
i think the modern equivalent might be a handicrafter on etsy. that said some of them bring in a fortune if they're lucky. i would also imagine this lifestyle is supported by someone else's wage....or a vast inheritance!

OP posts:
Original poster
Pheasantlysurprised · 03/12/2021 01:23

@Meh2020

Op - is that twirling the pasta, using a fork, on the spoon? I’m in no way bohemian and both me and 8 year old eat spaghetti like this. If it’s just a spoon I am absolutely with the other poster and want to see a video!

As for the question… rich, hippy, drug dabbler, someone that coasts - but can afford to because they are rich.

he chops the spaghetti with the side of spoon then shovels it into mouth. one of his many talents. such flair.
OP posts:
starrynight21 · 03/12/2021 01:26

To me it means someone who is artistic, creative, lives a simple life without a lot of "stuff", probably works in the arts, lives in a flat with similar arty people. Reads poetry a lot. Wears an eclectic variety of fashions , lot of colour , never fitting in with what others wear.

LucentBlade · 03/12/2021 02:19

BobCatBob some similarities

Mother had been on stage, a model and performed in the circus until she had I think her second child so had lots of theatrical friends including openly gay men which was rare in the early 1979’s. We grew up in a huge Victorian house with a dressing up box full of Mothers old ballgowns from the 1950’s. I remember loving a rabbit fur cape in that box and a feather hat that had been my Grandmothers. She would quote Shakespeare, the bible and other literary stuff, make up songs and poems.

She was married four times and men fell in love with her like moths to the flame. She walked around in dramatic dressing gowns and kitten heel slippers with real fur. I came home once and she was quite drunk tap dancing on top of the board off of the top of the twin tub.

I remember my very first day at school, she waltzed in to collect me wearing a jade green dress very much in the style of Jackie Onassis with a huge fake diamond brooch on her shoulder. I remember all the other Mothers gawping at her.

She taught all of us the art of conversation and made us all have lessons in how to walk properly with books on our heads. She gave us dancing and singing lessons.

She was great fun but not maternal in the least.

FindingMeno · 03/12/2021 02:44

I think bohemian is often used as a different word for non- conventional.
I live a bohemian lifestyle according to others but I am not a creative at all

madisonbridges · 03/12/2021 02:48

@Pheasantlysurprised
House in utter disarray with small areas of calm. Dust loves us.

I love you for this. This is my house and I've always labelled myself a slob. Now I can airily claim I'm a bohemian. A lover of velvets with embroidered insets, long skirts and floppy hats, arranging flowers with one always hanging from my fingertips, wine on the small terrace outside my french doors, croquet on the lawn, my English country garden vivid with summer flowers and the walls full of wisteria and fragrant clematis and jasmine.
Yes. I am not a slob, I am a bohemian. (Off shopping for new clothes and a garden.)

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