Many people will (despite recognising the surname) not know who the Talitha Getty is, but in her own way Getty's influence on fashion is still being referenced and felt today. Talitha was an actress-cum-model of the late 1960s who, upon marriage to John Paul Getty (of the Getty oil dynasty), became part of swinging London's fashionable milieu. She is probably best remembered for an iconic photograph taken on a roof top in Marrakesh, Morocco in January 1969 by Patrick Lichfield, portraying her wearing a multicolored kaftan, white harem pants and cream boots. In this image she can easily be seen as the apotheosis of hippie fashion at the time and has gone on to become a model over the years for what, more recently, has come to be referred as boho chic or, as I think more accurately, the luxe-bohemian look.
Although during her short lifetime Talitha was not known to a wider public like many of her associates, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful and designer Yves St Laurent (of whom she was an early muse), fashion commentators in recent times have come to reassess the importance of her contribution to modern day fashion. St Laurent likened her and her cohorts in Marrakesh to the beautiful and the damned of the F. Scott Fitzerald novel and in a way she was; dying within the same twelve month period as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Edie Sedgwick.
Talitha and Edie died within four months of one another. Both of these women in their different ways contributed to the luxe-bohemian look which in the new millennium has seen such a resurgence, thanks to the efforts of Sienna Miller and Kate Moss. But whereas Edie Sedgwick is known beyond the fashion savvy thanks to a recent biopic charting her rise and fall, Talitha still remains virtually unknown.
During its initial revival in the 2004 the luxe-bohemian look was purely a straightforward lifting of modes of clothing from the sixties; features included floaty skirts, furry gillets, embroidered tunics, large faux-coin belts, Ugg boots, baggy cardigans and hobo bags. The very fact that girls who adopted this style of dress came to be known as 'Siennas' shows just how influential this trend at its zenith had become. As quickly as the boho craze had begun just as quickly did the backlash kick in: fashion journalists commenting that the overexposed boho look "was going down". Listening to such comments you wouldn't be mistaken in thinking that the luxe bohemian look had, after enjoying a second Summer of Love, died a quick death.
But has it really? Last year's key trends for the summer seemed strangely to contain more than just a few nuances of louche boho styling, albeit in a much diluted form. Instead the luxe-bohemian look has become much more refined in the manner in which it is being referenced in fashion. Rather than being a rather contrived imitation of the look which Talitha had originally popularised it is now utilized with a much lighter touch; apparent in the continued usage of
embroidery, leather detailing, print and gentle frills. This so called 'folk' look of the summer of 2007 is ultimately the more restrained, better evolved successor to the cruder copy-cat look seen in the 2004 to 2005 revival of the trend.
Irrespective of the physical details the most important component of the boho look which has been revived is the art of looking effortlessly stylish. Originally the hippie look was a way of eschewing the rather staid and buttoned down sartorial styles of the preceding 1950s, of which Talitha was a prime exemplar. Fashion in the new millennium has also exhibited a similar propensity towards appearing thrown together in an accidentally chic and stylish way; Hollywood ingénues and budding fashionistas aspiring towards the 'done-undone' look (think the Olsen twins, Chloe Sevigny, Kate Moss
and, of course, Sienna Miller). It is the spirit of the bohemian look which has insured its longevity, keeping it current and influential. After all, no one likes a try hard.
Comment
Have your say, tell us what you think...