Thought Brat summer was over? No silly, that b*tch is still yolo-ing her way around the Med! Despite every marketing department’s best efforts to sabotage all that toxic shade of green stands for, the original Brat girl, Charli xcx, is firing up that famous Bic lighter on a sunbed in a fabulous yet undisclosed location. Luckily, Vogue has her number.
Yesterday, after H&M wiped its socials, save for the date “12 September” backed by that lurid slime colour, Charli slid into our inbox to tell us, in the plainest of terms, that Brat would be gatecrashing London Fashion Week. To celebrate her H&M autumn/winter 2024 campaign, the singer convinced the high-street brand to let her stage a party with Jamie xx and Sherelle on the opening night of the spring/summer 2025 shows. For a city that often fails to attract the international guests of its counterparts, Charli has gifted London the ultimate golden ticket: fun!
“H&M has been so down and really let me do exactly what I want,” says the popstar with the world in the palm of her chipped-manicured hand. “It’s always cool to work with people who just want you to truly express yourself creatively. So many people say that, but very few mean it.” Charli’s non-negotiable? Her fans had to be invited – she will tease out details on how to rub shoulders with the industry’s great and good soon. (Expect a major VIP guest list lip-glossed and Marlboro-ed to high heaven, too).
For newcomers into Charli’s fold, who are only familiar with the give-a-f*ck star in her Givenchy, Mugler and Saint Laurent era, the H&M co-sign might seem incongruous with the dishevelled luxury look she and her stylist Chris Horan have leaned into for her latest album. But true Charliphiles (Charlie’s Angels to use her fandom’s official name) will know she’s always been a high-street girl at heart. As an outspoken Essex youngster convincing her parents to let her DJ at warehouse raves, pieces from H&M, alongside items scored from thrift and charity shops, were the only means she had to express herself. “Those clothes gave me an ownership of who I was and what I wanted to project outwardly,” she shares. “In some cases, those clothes gave me confidence. That time was really formative for me.”