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What do British influencer Charli XCX, Golden Globe award winning actor Kyle McLachlan, the New York City subway system, and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris have in common? These four strange bedfellows have all branded themselves with the vivid “brat” green color — the color that CNN considers the defining color of summer 2024. Charli XCX first dropped the color in her album, and it since went viral, making its appearance in MTA train repair signs, a McLachlan music video, and in Harris’s presidential campaign. What makes this color so chic and what makes it so popular?
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Brat summer
Brat summer has been a trending topic since the beginning of June, achieving tens of thousands of hashtags on social media videos and posts. Brat summer is best defined as an eclectic, self-confident, intersectional movement. Brat summer is for self-acceptance and fun-loving women. Brat summer is branded in a bright, eye-catching shade of green.
The invention of brat green
Vulture explains exactly how brat green came to be. Before selecting the color, Charli XCX reviewed 500 other color options with design studio Special Offer Inc.’s founder Brent David Feaney.
Freaney explained to Vulture how “brat green” was chosen. “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t too tasteful — that the green didn’t feel like it could be fashion,” he explained. “It should feel like there’s something off, a little bit wrong.”
But, “Charli knew exactly what she wanted, probably long before she even engaged with us,” Freaney shared with CNN. “We spent months just talking about color and color references. ‘What does this shade of green mean versus this shade of green? What’s the connotation?’”
While walking around New York City, Freaney would stop to take photos of any green object that might fit in the ‘bratosphere,’” Freaney continued. “Then I’d take (these pictures) to my computer and use the (Photoshop) eyedropper tool to make that green and present it. Like, ‘I saw this traffic cone outside. What do we think about that?’”
Sunita Yeomans, who leads the Graphic Branding and Identity course at London College of Communications adds, in a comment to CNN, that “Freaney says they didn’t want a shade that felt conventional. “We knew we didn’t want a darker green or a mint green. We were like, ‘Let’s choose something that feels really off-putting.”
Brat in the wild
It didn’t take long for brat green to transcend Charli XCX’s brand. Stephanie, a New Yorker fan of a British-based pop singer, opened an Instagram account @accidentallybrat, where she uploaded pictures of brat green spotted in the wild submitted to her from all over the world, including a real estate sale poster and a vividly-colored rock in a science museum.
“It’s just so fun,” she told CNN. “Every time I’m with a friend walking on the street someone stops to yell, ‘Brat!’ when we see anything green. It’s so iconic and eye-catching — if you see anything online with that color you immediately know what it’s referencing.”
Brat green got another shot of publicity after the Kamala Harris’s campaign adopted the branding and color. Charli XCX endorsed Harris on X, stating that “kamala IS brat.” Subsequently, brat summer became associated with the Harris campaign and now Harris’s official campaign account on X sports a “brat” banner and the brat green color.
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Barbie Pink- Summer 2023
Brat green isn’t the first hue to define a season. Last summer was the summer of pink, inspired by the coincidence of the pink-branded Barbie film’s debut and the Valentino fashion house basing their fashion runway show on the Pink PP color. Later, several celebrities showed up to the Met Gala in bright pink and rapped Ice Spice based her music video on the eye-popping color.
Laurie Pressman, the vice president of Pantone, told CNN about the pink color that Pier Paolo Piccoli (the creative director of Valentino), “wanted this to be a cultural touchstone.” She defined the color as “being bold” and “standing out.”
Standing out is exactly the feature that made Barbie pink, Pink PP, and brat green so attractive and viral, Yeoman explained. He told CNN, “if you look at Brat green on a screen, it zings. Barbie pink does the same thing. It’s about finding a shade that works both when it’s backlit on a screen and also in real life.”
For whatever reason, because it’s bright, because it’s fun, because it’s self-confident, or because it zings, brat is winning over summer 2024. The bold hue is more than just a trend; it’s a symbol of summer, fun, confidence, and femininity.
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