Brat’s anti-fashion style is in fashion
You know that brat deserves your attention when even the campaign of Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris has used its unsettling green color and typeface and when numerous posts on TikTok have been pairing her videos with songs from Charli XCX’s album titled “Brat.” The viral hashtag #bratsummer has no doubt increased Kamala’s appeal among Zoomers, who consider her the “cool girl” option, especially after the British popstar endorsed the candidate by tweeting “Kamala IS brat” shortly after President Biden announced he was stepping out of the race.
Charli’s sixth album of retro-electronic EDM and hyper-pop songs such as 360, Apple and Girl, So Confusing, explores themes of generational trauma, confidence and self-doubt that resonated enough with audiences worldwide to climb to the top of the charts and insinuate itself into pop culture. Released only in June, the album branding has not only influenced political campaigns and style trends but also sparked conversations about marketing, branding, color theory and fashion history.
Ironically, for something so trendy, brat is actually anti-fashion. “It’s an attitude, more than an aesthetic,” says Katy Lubin, VP of brand and communications at Lyst, who calls it “chaotic, brazen and fun, a welcome relief from the prettiness of Coquette and Barbiecore and the properness of Clean Girls and Quiet Luxury.” Charli, however, says “It can also go that way, like quiet luxury, but it can also be so, like, trashy.”
While the dictionary definition of “brat” is “an ill-mannered, annoying child or immature person,” the Charli version is all about accepting your imperfections while embracing the chaos—a more empowering term that respects your individuality, being unapologetically yourself and having the confidence to stand out from the crowd.
Charli described her album as “me, my flaws, my f***ups, my ego, all rolled into one.” In a TikTok video, she explained, “You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe has a breakdown. But kind of like parties, through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
It's such an inclusive and relaxed vibe that it was readily embraced for a “summer of freedom” when you don’t have to make an effort or at least look like you didn’t make an effort—so you see videos of youth embracing their inner “brat” by showing off playful, mischievous behavior that resonates with Gen Z’s desire for self-expression and nonconformity.
The brat image is so inherently personal that it can’t be bought, says Michael Appler of Trendalytics. “Charli herself has released very little merchandise, and that’s the point. Brat is anti-merch, it embodies fan-made, DIY club outfits in their purest form. It wouldn’t make much sense for a retailer to market products as ‘brat’ because the core Charli customer wouldn’t buy them.”
Having said that, it doesn’t mean that there is no distinct brat image that taps into Y2K and Indie Sleaze style as well as clubbing culture, like a strappy white top or tank worn without a bra, babydoll tops, block-heel boots and ripped leggings. And, of course, there’s the brat green in clothes, accessories, and even nail polish as accent.
Brat green is a whole story in itself. When Charli had the album cover designed by Brent David Freaney of Special Offer, Inc., she wanted it to be “unfriendly and uncool.” Freaney says his directive was, “I don’t want this to feel like it has any taste, I want it to feel off-putting and kind of garish.”
Although it appears like the simplest and easiest album design, with just blurred, sans-serif black letters on a solid green background, the design took five months and “there is a very deeply considered world in it.”
After taking photos of green things all over NYC, they had almost 500 shades. “The final call came from an emotional feeling from Charli, something that captured the energy of her album, something irreverent and in your face and something that couldn’t be associated with anything else.”
Falling at the intersection of lime green, chartreuse and slime green, a palette of yellow and neon-infused greens has actually grown in popularity over the last few years: Billie Eilish made slime green the hair color of the summer in 2019, while 2022, the year of the dopamine color revival, saw highlighter green rise to challenge Barbiecore pink.
Similar greens go even further back to the 1920s when there was a new color revolution of vibrant and whimsical shades that included a bright yellow green that emerged in fashion as well as other areas of design. 1960s psychedelia brought a vibrating, saturated green, as seen in Andy Warhol’s works and in the Vogue 1968 editorial “Beauty and the Little Green Dress” starring Veruschka.
Madonna and Keith Haring utilized the energetic shade in the 1980s and by the 1990s, anime brought it to the screen.
Miuccia Prada’s Spring 1996 collection titled “Banal Eccentricity” was green-rich, inspired by 1950s suburban furniture with upholstery in rotten avocado. She said she wanted to take the idea of “bad taste” and upend it via fashion—combining green with brown, the most uncommercial colors, in geometric retro prints that came to be known as “ugly chic.” Prada has regularly reprised yellow-green colors since then as signifiers of anti-fashion aesthetics which are actually very brat.
Judith Van Vliet of Color Authority notes that there are positive and negative connotations to greens with a high yellow content, “most often associated with the first days of spring when young shoots emerge from the earth—speaking of revival, restoration and renewal; and also associated with toxicity and slimy creatures—think of reptiles or even Shakespeare’s depiction of jealousy as a green-eyed monster.”
While green could be considered disconcerting and ugly, it could also be construed as audacious and nonconformist. Charli is obviously flipping the script to reshape narratives and keep a lively conversation going so that this polarizing color can find new ways of creative expression.
“Times are tough and people are looking for positive energy and hope, and a little bit of chaos,” says Matthew Cancel of Cancel Communications. “Brat green is a symbol of that vibe—it’s bold, it’s fresh, and it resonates with the youthful, rebellious spirit.”
