Early in 2024, I approached Charli XCX as she entered the JW Anderson Fall/Winter 2024 show and asked her who she wanted to be on the magazine’s next cover. “Me,” she replied, without a moment’s hesitation. I expected Charli to come forward. After all, she is a self-described “pop music genius” who has dedicated an entire album to the word “brat,” a word that within two weeks had become inseparable from the noxious green of the lo-fi album artwork.
Following in the tradition of Bottega Veneta’s Kelly Green, Valentino’s PP Pink, and Gucci’s Ancora Red, Charli XCX has fully appropriated a color that’s already integrated into modern life. People are starting to see the musician in the most unexpected places: sticky notes, bent avocados, traffic cones, Shrek, and cheesy bathroom trash cans. And, on second thought, Zendaya’s press tour outfits were… The Challengers Not at all BratCoded? How about Chapel Roan, who played the Statue of Liberty at the Governors Ball? Or Evil And Brooklyn’s green lady? Brat green is now so firmly ingrained in the zeitgeist that the Gucci, Prada and Martine Rose spring/summer 2025 men’s shows featured several bright green coats and ink-splattered shirts that made you stop and say, “That was a bump.”
Given how quickly fashion houses responded to Barbie Pink in 2023, I suspect we’ll see a lot more of this in September. But what is it about this particular shade that sticks to the walls of our subconscious? Green is the most organic color in the world, a symbol of happy things like growth, health, and a prosperous, peaceful life, but this color is as if Mother Nature’s graphics card failed to load. It’s as if the printer ran out of blue and turned yellowish. It’s a putrid color somewhere in between. It’s neither chartreuse nor lime. It’s the color of toxic waste, infographic viruses, synthetic fruit flavorings, and plastic artificial turf. “I wanted it to be an aggressive, unfashionable shade of green to evoke the idea that something is wrong,” Charlie, who tried 65 colors before landing on the right one, explained in a recent profile. trend Singapore. “I want people to question our expectations of pop culture. Why are some things considered good and acceptable and some considered bad? I’m interested in the stories behind them and I want to inspire people. I’m not doing it to be a nice guy.”
Reading this, I was reminded of something Mrs. Prada once said about her spring/summer 1996 collection, a perfect mud of nauseating greens and browns that is said to have sparked the fashion world’s fascination with the anti-aesthetic. “Bad taste is part of our history, our culture,” she explained. “But it’s despised in the fashion industry, which can sometimes focus on fixed, narrowly limited notions of beauty, luxury, glamour.” That there might be something beyond what’s popular and palatable, and therefore most commercial, is something Charlie has long struggled with. Her previous album crash It was her first song to top the British charts, probably because Pop 2 and Boom!The songs on these records sound like a hundred modems flashing, but they’re worth repeating. They’re like Brat Green putting a lollipop chic on your tongue and it melts to reveal a sweet apple chew. And they’re like Prada, the less glamorous but always desirable. Charlie said he was thinking about desire on this album, too.
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