Brat summer proves once again that it's all about the aesthetic for Gen Z

The Clean Girl aesthetic had Gen Z in a chokehold in 2023. 

5am journaling sessions, avocado toast, Pilates, a scraped back bun that favoured some more than others; it was the moment, and to an extent, we liked it.

Self-improvement is a booming market, after all. 

Plus, it gave us a new excuse to boast about our step counts and sardonically remark "What? You’ve only just got up?”

However, as is the case with most trends, Clean Girl was cyclical. She had her time on the main stage.

This summer, a far more outrageous cousin arrived – one who dumped her luggage all over your room, borrowed (and smeared) your favourite lipstick and spilled red wine on your carpet.

You can’t hate her for it. It’s what she’s all about.

Enter: brat

Charli XCX released brat in June 2024. Since then, it’s gone beyond an album. It’s gone beyond marketing. It is, in fact, a whole cultural movement.

Why does Gen Z love brat summer so much?

To bait the Daily Mail headlines, young consumers have not had it easy. 

They’re weathering a cost-of-living crisis. Time spent online means they’re in the firing line for all the negativity social media brings.

Buying a house is out of the equation, and to top it all off, they’re constantly having their characters berated by anyone outside of their generation.

Pressure is burning from absolutely every angle: are you eating right? Are you working hard enough? Why don’t you have a side hustle? Everyone’s getting engaged – where’s your ring? 

Brat equals chaos. And what is the opposite of chaos? Control.

We’re constantly being pushed to achieve things in life that are outside of our control. And, to put it kindly: it’s tiring. Unfortunately, we don’t have control over much in life – and rather than punishing ourselves, Brat encourages us to be unapologetic. Best said by Charli herself:

“You’re that girl who is a bit messy and loves to party and maybe says dumb things sometimes. She’s honest, blunt and a little bit volatile. That’s Brat.”

Gen Z are all about the aesthetic

Humans are simple creatures. We're aware there's around 8 billion of us on the planet – and we all want to make our mark somehow. Aesthetics help us do that.

They've also been around forever: millennials were guided by sub-cultures throughout their teens, so were Gen Xers, Boomers and those in generations that we don't even have labels for (looking at you, Victorians).

Rather than robbing us of our individuality, aesthetics help us define it.

Thanks to the internet and the various sub-cultures it has bred, there's one for anyone. Scene kids, mob wife, cottagecore: you name it, it's there. Go niche or go home.

Brat taps into nostalgia

The past equals comfort – it’s why so many old shows are getting re-boots and why advertising has suddenly gone all sentimental. It’s sensical: in times of unrest, we enjoy turning back. 

Brat is “peak 2000s nostalgia”, shares one YouTuber. With zingy, fast-paced beats and synthy tones, you could almost be listening through your iPod nano. 

It’s also pretty feminist, too

In Girl, So Confusing, listeners hear a candid account of the struggles of friendships.

The lyrics are raw, confessional and relatable - they underscore the complexity of girlhood. “I don't know if you like me / Sometimes I think you might hate me / Sometimes I think I might hate you / Maybe you just wanna be me”.

The song was also shrouded in mystery, until a new version was released, featuring the heroine of Charli’s lyrics, Lorde.

‍Girl, So Confusing is no longer a one-sided, self-questioning dialogue, but a conversation between two of the biggest artists in the industry: “She believed my projection / And now I totally get it”

Listening to the remix feels cathartic: a sudden truce on a war you’ve been slogging through your entire life.

“Conceptually, this might be the best track Charli has ever made” one reddit user writes. “I can relate a lot to miscommunication causing a rift between two people who didn’t mean for that to happen. It’s really such a one-of-a-kind thing to hear two stars openly talk about it in such a candid manner on a song”.

Celebrities have waded into the conversation, too.

“I hope you realize how lucky we are to be alive at the same time as this record”, Julia Fox shared. She continues “girls are conditioned to see each other as competitors, but really we are teammates and we are so much stronger that way”.

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The commercial value of Brat

To be successful, brands need to move at the pace of culture. So, it should be no surprise that this summer, a shedload of brands went acid green, launching new products and social campaigns.

Kate Spade released a “brat starter pack”. Adanola teased a full brat collection. ColourPop dedicated a full site page to lime green beauty products.

And, perhaps the most rogue endorsement, the album became the unlikely ally of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. In 48 hours, the brat rebrand earned Harris a total of $15.9 million in media impact value. 

So what’s next?

Some are saying the sun is already setting on brat summer. If you’re a little gutted, and crying “but it’s only just begun!”, don’t worry. 

If we’re forecasting correctly, these kinds of movements don’t go away overnight. In fact, they’re probably setting the pace for what comes next.

Indie sleaze?

As we approach fall, Indie Sleaze is a strong contender for the next Gen Z aesthetic. 

Saltburn proved we’re already getting nostalgic for the naughties, and nothing encapsulates that era quite like Indie Sleaze. 

Brat lurks in the shadows of Indie Sleaze: an aesthetic that’s grungy, messy and a little bit sexy. Think leather jackets, faux fur, black eyeliner on the waterline, and sheer tights. 

We’ve been seeing a clap back to sanitized celebrity culture and overly-polished feeds for a while.

It’s why BeReal exploded in popularity, Instagram is chockablock with 0.5 photo dumps and the most successful creators are the ones who remind us they’re human, too. 

In Vogue, one writer shared:

“Back in the early 2010s, it really felt authentic, because stars didn’t have stylists or full-on glam teams in the same way that they do today; They really were just slapping things together and hoping it worked. There was a sloppiness to the look that I found charming. It’s hard to imagine how this will look today, when a curated image is everything.” 

He reckons it could be too early for an Indie Sleaze revival – but then again, this piece was written in March – a prelude to brat summer, if you will. 

Keep your eyes peeled

Brat summer might be a seasonal trend, but fall is on the horizon, and we predict things are only going to get messier (but in a cool, devil-may-care way).

It’s all about the aesthetic, after all. 

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image source: Business of Fashion

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