What is summer without an overarching theme which seems to define what everyone's up to? Last year, everyone was obsessed with Barbie amid the Barbenheimer phenomenon at the cinema, and before that it was all about having a Hot Girl Summer.
This year, you may have heard of a cooler summer trend - Barbie's meaner older sister who spits on the very idea of pink, as she flicks a cigarette butt: yes, it's Brat summer.
Unrelated to Bratz dolls in anything other than kindred spirit, the latest summer trend follows the critically acclaimed release of cult musician Charli xcx's album Brat - which has taken the world by a storm.
© Spencer PlattWhat started with It Girls like Chloe Sevigny and Julia Fox embracing their good friend's success, has since seen the likes of Glen Powell, Lisa Rinna, and even Brooke Shields doing a viral TikTok dance to the track "Apple". Even Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have embraced the Brat theme for her presidential election campaign.
But what does it mean to be a Brat? And will it help see Kamala Harris into the White House? Here's the low down…
Charli xcx's album
© @charli_xcx Instagram, record label AtlanticBrat is the name of Charli xcx's sixth studio album, released to critical acclaim on June 7, 2024. According to Metacritic, it's the highest ranked album of 2024 thus far and has made its way high in the ranks of the best albums ever acknowledged on its site.
Its bright green album cover with the word 'Brat' on it in low resolution Arial font was a stark different to the singer's usual album covers - and with good reason: "I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong", she told Vogue Singapore.
"I'd like for us to question our expectations of pop culture—why are some things considered good and acceptable, and some things deemed bad? I'm interested in the narratives behind that and I want to provoke people. I'm not doing things to be nice."
The album is heavily rooted in dance music and club culture, with its songs tackling subjects such as grief, womanhood, love, and party culture.
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What is the Brat aesthetic?
© @charli_xcxCharli defined the Brat aesthetic herself as a person who might have "a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra."
It's of no surprise that according to Instagram account Data, But Make It Fashion, Brat summer has coincided with a rising popularity in white tank tops - and the color green. The simplicity of this aesthetic - what defines it - only skims the surface of what it means to be a Brat.
© GettyWhen Charli released the music video for lead single "360", featuring It Girls like Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Gabbriette Bechtel and Emma Chamberlain, it became clear that this aesthetic was imbued with an impenetrable sense of cool and irony. In many ways, it became a rebuttal against the prevalence of the "clean girl" trend brought on by TikTok.
There's an emotional side to the Brat aesthetic too - in an album written by an artist who is clearly aware of her ability to behave badly, there is an element of the trend which allows the people who partake to relish in their imperfections.
"You're just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes," Charli said. "Who feels like herself but maybe also 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."
Kamala Harris' presidential campaign
© Chris duMondWhether she was joking or not, Charli couldn't have imagined the reaction when she tweeted that Kamala Harris "IS brat", which has been viewed 48.4 million times.
Nevertheless, Kamala Harris overhauled her campaign's online presence, embracing the supposed support from the popstar. Her campaign account, renamed Kamala HQ, now sports a lime green photo in the style of the Brat album cover, reading: "kamala hq".
Does this mean that you might see the presidential hopeful don a white tank top any time soon? Or even a lime green power suit? That seems unlikely - but the strategy clearly seeks to appeal to young voters.
The Brat aesthetic, which has grown to signify "cool" - is particularly popular among young people. This seems especially important as one of the major criticisms of Joe Biden surrounded his age and whether he was cut out for the job amid a number of public speaking mistakes.
© Screenshot of @KamalaHQBut it also acknowledges that although young voters were a key part of the Democrats' natural support base, many of then have felt disillusioned. A CNN poll conducted by the SSRS revealed that Biden was actually 11 percentage points behind Trump among voters between the age of 18 and 34 back in April 2024.
Memes are an important part of media literacy - particularly among young people. In fact, before the Democrat campaign X account was changed to Kamala HQ, it was a page that centered memes to do with President Biden.
© AnadoluIn the run up to President Biden dropping out of his campaign for re-election, the Vice President became the subject of a number of memes - particularly relating to her retelling of a story about her mother in 2023.
She said: "My mother used to - she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, 'I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'" Laughing, she added: "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."
Initially, the clip primarily seemed to pop up as an attempt to ridicule her, attempting to claim she wasn't making any sense. But the clip has been remixed into a number of popular songs, as well as other memes more sympathetic to the candidate, overwhelmingly coming from her supporters.
So will Kamala's Brat-inspired campaign win her the election? Only time will tell - but it's certain that her presidential campaign has started with a bang.
