‘Brat Girl Summer’ Trend Explained: Charli XCX, Rihanna and Katy Perry

Charli XCX

Put the pore-cleansing facial strips and green juice down, Brat Girl Summer is here, and it means we can all stop making an effort. Or, at least, simply make an effort to look like we’ve made no effort whatsoever.

Are you following? Allow Us to explain. Charli XCX’s acclaimed new album Brat has started a movement, a movement that involves smudged eyeliner, novelty sunglasses and a knowing look on your face that suggests you’ve just been doing something absolutely disgraceful.

Rihanna

Right now, the Brat trend is all over TikTok, with lists explaining that it involves doing stuff like sleeping in your makeup, staying out all night and randomly getting a tattoo. Meanwhile, Charli XCX herself said that all you need to pull it off is a strappy white tank top and a cheap lighter.

Of course, Gen Z are acting like they invented it, and while they definitely coined the phrase, millennials might be thinking “Wait, didn’t Kesha and Lindsay Lohan basically do all this in the ‘00s ‘hot mess’ era?”. It’s true that there are similarities, but while an early ‘00s party girl probably used dry shampoo and drugstore face wipes to disguise the fact that she hadn’t been home for three days, a Brat girl is less apologetic, nonchalantly having far too much fun to worry about disheveled hair and smudged makeup.

Some say that Brat is a natural rebellion from last year’s pristine, girly-pink Barbie-mania. In fact, as one blogger put it: “A Brat is just a Barbie who’s seen some sh-t” and it’s true that all things Brat, right down to the trashy black clothes and flashes of lurid green, as seen on Charli XCX’s instantly iconic album cover, are pretty much the anti-Barbie. They’re also the antithesis of other social media trends and lifestyles, like Clean Girl and Trad Wife. In fact, if Clean Girl is Instagram and Trad Wife is Pinterest, Brat Girl is most definitely TikTok. That’s if she hasn’t lost her phone at a festival, anyway.

One notable brat is model Gabbriette Bechtel, who appears in Charli XCX’s 360 video and describes the look as “being really hot but in a scary way.” And of course, she’s engaged to Matty Healy, a boy Brat if ever we’ve seen one. He doesn’t have a type though, because his famous ex Taylor Swift is very much not a Brat; you can tell she washes her hair a lot, plus a Brat would think it was totally uncool to date a cute, smiley football player (she might sleep with one for revenge though.)

Matty Healy and Fiancee Gabbriette Bechtel: A Timeline of Their Low-Key Relationship

Even moms can be Brats, which is helpful, since low-effort dressing and minimal grooming tend to go hand in hand with having kids. Katy Perry gave the look a spin with her fur coat, big shades, ripped tights and moody expression for the Balenciaga show at Paris Fashion Week, while Rihanna too oozes Brat, somehow always managing to look simultaneously gorgeous and like she’s been doing unspeakable things all night.

Katy Perry

And boys can be Brats too: the cast of The Bear, always smoking, wearing t-shirts they’ve owned forever but making them fashion, and, above all, looking completely furious, have been cited as total Brats, along with Paul Mescal, especially when he’s being all grubby at a festival.

So, here’s to a fun Brat Girl Summer. We can all worry about the laundry later.