Trends spread rapidly and widely due to factors such as globalization, social media, consumer behavior, and cultural exchanges. Sometimes a trend can take days or weeks to catch on, but often it only takes a few hours to have a global impact in surprising ways. Successful trends often cross into different fields: a fashion trend might inspire a food trend (like last year's "tomato girl summer"), and a music trend might influence fashion or even politics, as it happened recently.
British pop singer Charli XCX recently released her sixth album, "Brat" that soared to the top three on both the UK album chart and the US Billboard chart, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums.
The album cover is strikingly simple, featuring a neon chartreuse or slime green canvas (a trendy color actually, if you think about the opening look in Chanel's Resort 2025 collection View this photo) with the album title in a basic pixelated typeface. So basic that it looked bad, and so bad that ended up looking good, this minimalist approach proved a winner in a world obsessed with over-polished visuals.
However, the album's essence isn't defined by its cover. Charli XCX stated on TikTok that a "brat" to her is someone who has "a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra."
"You're just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown," the singer explained. "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."
The brat isn't defined by specific fashion labels: a brat doesn't buy YSL's pre-distressed tights, but rather ends up ripping hers from wearing them too much (or too recklessly...). There's a raw hedonism and a burning desire to party in this brat figure, even though the world doesn’t really offer many reasons to actually celebrate.
Critics and commentators have already penned lengthy essays contrasting the brat with antithetical figures like the highly-groomed "clean girl." The latter loves keeping everything neat, practices mindfulness and yoga, and buys reusable cups in different colors to match her outfits (ending up causing more pollution trough her overconsumption).
The brat is not feminine, doesn't follow any self-care routine, and leans more towards a Tank Girl or Harley Quinn (as seen in "Birds of Prey") vibe. The brat doesn't shower, doesn't change clothes, and might even exercise without caring about it - like Charli XCX in her "360" music video, where she drinks red wine on a treadmill, clearly not using it for its intended purpose (the video also features cameo roles from some "brats", including actor and model Julia Fox, American actress, model, and fashion designer Chloë Sevigny, and YouTuber Emma Chamberlain).
Being a brat is also about insecurity (in her song "Rewind," Charli XCX mentions being constantly worried about her weight, a common concern for women of all ages), something that leads women to construct a brusque persona as a form of armor to survive societal and patriarchal rules that expect women to be neat and look feminine (but this isn't just a brat trait, as it is a common defense mechanism for many women on a daily basis).
We've seen brats on runways in previous collections and designs that call to mind the current idea of the "brat", at times combined with notes of punk, think about Helen Storey's binliner ballskirt or her "Rage" collection (S/S 90).
Storey's collection featured corsets covered with bullets and bras adorned with medals, designed during the Gulf War era. This collection provoked both outrage and empathy, expressing anxiety and personal rage stemming from the pressures of being a mother, artist, fashion designer, and woman (contrasting sentiments that Charli XCX expresses in her album; in "I Think About It All the Time," the singer reflects on these pressures, wondering, "Should I stop my birth control? / 'Cos my career feels so small in the existential scheme of it all").
The brat trend reached the political sphere when a couple of days ago Charli XCX posted on X (formerly Twitter) three words - "kamala IS brat." The reference hinted at Kamala Harris, the U.S. Vice President, who recently announced her bid for the presidency in the 2024 elections after President Joe Biden, aged 81, ended his re-election campaign due to concerns about his age and ability to lead.
Rather than questioning the meaning of the post, the official Kamala Harris HQ account on X embraced the reference. They quickly updated their banner to a lime green background, using the same font featured on Charli XCX's album. The trend of the summer suddenly exploded.
There are things that make the first Black and Asian American woman to serve as vice-president in American history, a brat: in 2020, on the campaign trail, Harris opted for a casual style and dynamic shoes such as sneakers and she was often spotted wearing the same clothes on different occasions (no, we're not implying that like "the brat" she doesn't wash….).
While an endorsement from Harris herself might have seemed forced or insincere, Charli XCX's support added authenticity and credibility, contrasting with Hillary Clinton's 2016 "Pokémon Go to the polls" invitation, which was widely perceived as contrived. Harris' campaign's prompt and positive reaction also signaled an effort to engage with younger voters, a demographic that many politicians, including candidates at the recent European elections, have often overlooked. Yet these are the voters that may make the real difference to the outcome of the 2024 election.
Since Joe Biden's exit from the race, Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has received over $100 million from Democratic Party donors, something that has deeply upset Republican candidate and former US president Donald Trump. His campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, accusing Harris' 2024 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by appropriating Biden's campaign funds.
Harris, who also received an endorsement from Vogue US (the magazine previously supported her when she became Vice President), has in the meantime gone viral thanks to the Charli xcx story and to people who turned into a meme a sentence ("You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?") from a 2023 speech in which she shared her late mother's words - "I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"
Will we see Harris wearing lime green clothes or even just shoes to add a "brat" accent to her outfits? Will Harris make it and become the first female president of the United States? And, in case, will we actually see Harris act like a brat in political matters and maybe take decisions like protecting abortion?
Time will tell. What we do know for sure at the moment is that Charli XCX's tweet livened the presidential race up, paving the way to a neon chartreuse summer. For those who want to join the trend, Charli's "brat" merchandise will be available from August, while unofficial "Kamala is brat" merchandise is already available on Etsy and you can bet it will be more popular than the usual political merchandise.
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