How Charli ruined brat summer.

Charlie XCX is working with H&M so should we assume that the apple is in fact, literally rotten to the core? What does making "not caring" cool mean in the long run? Will fast fashion win if we keep letting celebrities contradict themselves?!

Videos I mention:

/// SUPPORT ///

Being in the club means you get: a free weekly podcast, access to a secret facebook group, a free poetry collection and play written by me, access to livestreams AND you get to access to all my videos before anyone else sees them!

Nab yourself a POSITIVE PANIC PATCH:

// COME AND HANG WITH ME IN BETWEEN UPLOADS //

I use Octopus Energy which are a clean green sustainable energy company - if you're in the UK and are curious, here are the two videos I talk about them in:

[annaf]

‘Getting their bag when they already have several bags at home’ is such a great play on overconsumption and wealth that I will be stealing it xoxo

[dalekmad]

Heirloom-style broke my brain. They can't even imagine creating something that could last long enough to become an heirloom.

[starylize]

what’s interesting is the era that has inspired all of this, indie sleaze, was full of people wearing mismatched clothing from the thrift store. people didn’t look put together because they weren’t—and it wasn’t fully an aesthetic until people looked back on it and gave it a name. at the time it was just what being a hipster looked like lol

[emmairwin]

The H&M and Charli XCX London fashion week runway is absolutely going to overshadow loads of farrrr more important second hand based events including the eBay runway and the Oxfam runway (the models are volunteers who won a competition styling their second hand clothes, so much work has gone into it!) I’m so disappointed that this has happened ://

[v.marcoq.]

I thought the idea of Brat summer was slight hedonistic escapism, it never pretended to be anything bigger than that. And that's what drew in so many people to it.

[arcadianmorning]

Your comment about any positive groupthink trends being immediately and viciously co-opted by any and all industries in order to push us in the direction of capitalism is right on the nose. It really is exhausting.

Edit: typo correction

[Fenilee]

I don't think charli was ever anti-capitalist or acted like that either LMAO

[notlikethebook]

I volunteered for a clothes swap this summer, and was able to find a perfectly "brat-summer green" dress that I love so much, and that is the kind of fashion experience I want everyone to be able to have, where trends can still exist and influence what we wear, but we can use/recycle/rework clothing to fit the trends, rather than needing to create whole new items to push forward trends

[luciferin_]

Brat summer gives the same vibe as telling women in the 1920's that smoking makes them as free as men, it doesn't, but it gave them that feeling. Brands are co-opting the aesthetic of women's choices to be "sleazey", like last year they co-opted the aesthetic to be a "clean", beige / pink Barbie girl boss. While simultanously, epsecially in H&M's case, preventing young women and girls from having any freedoms regarding their jobs, life choices, prospects. It's all capitalist consumerism brain rot.

[keepthechannelopen]

Leena, not being mean, but I really appreciated how you seemed genuinely upset throughout the video -- like, it's really comforting that people who actually care are talking openly about this shit on the internet

[xenialiashko]

I didn't get the obsession with Brat, the sound is not for me, but it's really strange to hear that it was anti-capitalist. To me it looked and sounded extremely commercial. And the green color for me had nothing to do with nature because it was so acidic. Neon green for me is chemical and plastic, not sustainability and nature 🤷🏻‍♀️

[sagefright]

she was so close to not commodifying my intangible joy 😭

[BaileySuttonMusic]

I'm not sure if many of us truly ever understood what brat summer was, but I am not surprised to see people capitalizing on whatever it is now

[T_Cup]

Brat summer just gives me rich people pretending to be poor and making a mess for poor people to clean up vibes, if that makes sense, that’s where the word brat has evolved to in my mind - and Charli's not changing my mind tbh

[Em-bug]

To me, brat summer was the aesthetic of smoking areas in clubs at 3am, when everyone's makeup is smudgy and everyone is chain smoking and has a few drinks spilled down them, you know? Smoking area-core?? Like cigarette butts stubbed in a can of White Claw, made into an aesthetic, that same plastic-y wastefulness. Gives me the same feeling of seeing all the sh!t people leave in the field after Reading and Leeds festivals wrap up honestly, we can DO BETTER PEOPLE

[MS-dirw]

Charli has never been anti-capitalist, she owns a few homes for one. Her gig has always been to find a lane of her own to shine in, have her type of pop music to be considered art more than product, and not bowing to label pressures. She really is an ego in the industry and she wants respect for what she does.

[goldernbtatenun]

Brat summer was about having cigarettes and a tank top for like the 2 weeks until the artist herself made it completely about commodifing + capitalism. Saying a POLITICIAN?? 'is brat' and working with H&M and Skims all to only further her own brand is really disappointing. Imagine if it turned into a real summer of disobedience and being 'ugly' & going back to thrifted style then it couldve even caused a shift in culture, instead its just another testament of the age we live in

[doesitmatter]

to me brat aesthetic was always giving "we are too cool to care about politics" so this fits right in

[sammalbee]

I don't mean to be overly cynical, but I don't think it's all that surprising - I think Charli has been in the industry for over a decade and has done MANY brand deals in her time in the spotlight, and while "Brat" has an "indie aesthetic, " let's not forget that Charli has been on a major label for much of that time - indie aesthetic =/= independent values (whatever those are???) Take Chappell Roan deciding not to play at the White House this summer because she doesn't want to be associated with a presidential tenure that supports the war in Palestine, despite how much good that same administration has done domestically - in this case, you can see someone who is very new to the spotlight living by her values and not compromising, but I also think that we're already seeing (and again, not in an overly cynical way, just in a "people be peopling!" way) that Chappell cancelling some of her european shows and being upfront about toxic celebrity culture is already turning people against her - it is difficult to live in the spotlight and be perfect, but it is seemingly impossible to live in the spotlight and be flawed, or indeed, be a person who is living in our complicated modern world (see Taylor Swift and her plane emissions, Kamala and her history working for the state of California, etc. etc.) making career choices where these women (yes, I'm going there!) have to continue building on what they've done previously, (go big or pack it up) and also have to live in a world where no decision is ever going to completely keep you "out of trouble, " especially as the spotlight on them gets brighter and harsher.

I want to be super clear I'm not condoning any of the actions I have listed here, I just wonder how we, culturally, societally, can hold famous women accountable for the yucky choices they make that continue to do harm while also not punishing them for the good work they do (Charli has donated A LOT of money to LGBTQIA+ groups over the years, and spread so much awareness for those causes, Chappell has been very vulnerable, sparking discussion online of privilege and entitlement in fan spaces, etc.) I'm also thinking about actual "indie" bands who may not have money to print merch on fair-trade t-shirts, for example - where do we draw the line? Am I only allowed to support artists who conform to every single checkbox I have in my head? I think at the end of the day, we're talking about harm reduction, not eradication - how can we lift up artists' best actions and best work while educating and steering our culture in a better direction, knowing that these big artists truly may not conform or ever even care?

[tamara]

Trying to market it as hair loom, at a time when fast fashion quality is the worst it's ever been is crazy