I CHANGE MY colors like the shiftiest fashion chameleon on the block. I fell hard for kitten heels. I'll wear a sweatshirt with new-wave rectangles mating with triangles on a field of squiggly lines – if it looks fresh. I'll sport culottes, don crazy hats, and sprout feathers given half a chance and the vaguest inkling of an imminent trend. I'll probably I draw the line at UGG boots and ponchos, but otherwise everything else is fair game.

So I'm in a bit of a dilemma when I scan glossies like Harper's Bazaar and discover that neoprene is out – eyelet is in. Preppy has hit the skids – luxe bohemian is in its full flower. Pencil skirts, '80s graphics, and plastic jewelry are so, so out, and full skirts, flowery prints, and ethnic chandelier earrings are so, so very in. Punky, no – pretty, yes. Even boys, if they're the least bit interested in fitting into some international trendoid crowd, must grow their locks long, stop shaving and tucking in their shirts, and look generally disheveled, just to properly accessorize those posh boho girls.

Tough girls who like leather, delight in the color black, and relish raccoon eye makeup have it hard. These days, at the movies, love may be under the scrutiny of scientists (Kinsey) or deconstructionist-minded playwrights (Closer), but you wouldn't know it from the boutiques – everything's so romantic.

One suspects boho style can be ascribed to the rise of a generation raised by Summer of Love parents – or even a reaction to preppy conservatism, which last returned during the Reagan years. It could be a symbolic expression of peacenik values, complete with tie-dye and African prints culled from a global marketplace. Of course, the cynic can't resist crowing, yes, the rest of the world matters – when it comes to purchasing dangly earrings and skirts made of scarves from distant lands. Can clothing that trades in exoticism and the romance of travel be considered even a small symbolic, decorative gesture toward, um, mending relations with the rest of the United Nations – or is it simply another sign of this country's growing cultural imperialism? Are we returning to the multicultural milieu of the early '90s, or the monied Mediterranean playgrounds associated with images of the Rolling Stones, Talitha Getty, and Jackie O?

And does it mean anything at all? The first time hippie style came around, it was another signal of youthful rebellion – the very appearance of bangled, bejeweled, caftaned, long-haired freaks seemed to undermine all that was held dear by straight-shooter conservatives and everyday normals. But by now, about the third time late-'60s style has come around through the trend cycle, one wonders if it's been scoured of its revolutionary associations and recycled into meaninglessness.

Kimberly Chun