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, Charlie XCX has fully appropriated a color that is already integrated into modern life. People are starting to see the musician in the most unexpected places: on sticky notes, bent avocados, traffic cones, Shrek, and cheesy toilet trash cans. And if you think about it, weren't Zendaya's outfits from the Challengers press tour a little brat-esque? How about Chapel Lawn's performance as the Statue of Liberty at the Governor's Ball? Or that green witch from Wicked and The Green Lady of Brooklyn? Brat green is now firmly etched in the zeitgeist, and the Gucci, Prada, and Martine Rose Spring/Summer 2025 men's shows featured some bright green coats and ink-splattered shirts that made you say, “That's interesting…”
Given how quickly fashion houses have 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 looks like Mother Nature's graphics card has failed to load. It's as if the printer ran out of blue and turned yellowish. It's a rotten color in between. It's not yellow-green, it's not lime, it's the color of toxic waste, infographic viruses, synthetic fruit flavorings, and plastic artificial grass. “I wanted it to be a jarring, unfashionable shade of green to evoke the idea that something is wrong,” Charlie, who tried 65 colors before landing on the right shade, explained in a recent Vogue Singapore profile. Why are some things considered good, acceptable, and some bad? I'm interested in the story behind it, and I want to inspire people. I'm not doing anything to be a nice person. “
Prada SS96.
Photo: Condé Nast Archives
Reading it, I was reminded of something Mrs. Prada once said about her Spring/Summer 1996 collection: a perfect quagmire of nauseating greens and browns that marked the beginning of fashion's interest in anti-aesthetics. “Bad taste is part of our history, our culture,” she explained. “But it's looked down upon in the fashion industry. Fashion can focus on fixed, narrowly limited notions of beauty, luxury, glamour.” That there might be something beyond what's popular and palatable — the most commercial — is something Charlie has long struggled with. Her previous album, “Crush,” topped the British charts for the first time, perhaps because it didn't have the insane logic of “Pop 2” or “Vroom Vroom.” The songs on these records sound like hundreds of modems flashing, but they make you want to listen to them on repeat. It's a bit like Brat Green putting a drunken lollipop on his tongue and letting it melt to reveal a sweet apple chewing gum inside. And it's a bit like Prada, the unattractive but always desirable thing. Charlie said she was thinking about desire on this album, too.
Used Green Cape Sleeve Cutout Midi Dress
Gucci 712 Melinda Green
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