“[H&M] knows how to throw a cool party,” shouted the performer, while charging across the stage in her fine knitted grey jersey dress with drawstring sides that slid up to suggest what’s “goin’ on down there.” Refusing to take off her sunnies–hats off for giving them Balenciaga flair–and pausing her anti-choreo moves for mere seconds to pull up her sheer knee-high socks, Charli was a braless boss bitch with the city in the palm of her hand. It was brief–a whistlestop, bass pounding tour of her latest album–but pitch perfect. No one needed a three-hour Swiftian epic, we wanted silly little sling-backs, hard beats, fries mashed up in boxes circulated by head-nodding stewards, and to be told repeatedly, “Get the fuck up on someone’s shoulders!”
Courtesy of H&M
This story runs deeper than the woman of the hour receiving a huge check to shout her way through a 30-minute club set akin to Glastonbury’s major Silver Hayes happening earlier this summer. “High-street fashion was the only fashion I knew for a really long time,” shares the Essex-raised raver, who grew up begging her parents to let her DJ at warehouse parties in makeshift clubwear scored from H&M and thrift stores. “Those clothes gave me an ownership of who I was and what I wanted to project outwardly. In some cases, they gave me confidence–that time was really formative.”
When H&M invited her to front its latest campaign in a plush leopard coat, Charli was reminded of the fact the stores have been playing her outspoken pop since 2011 (“Some of my songs I just love so much, I can’t help but be super into them,” she admits of singing along whenever she hears her tunes while shopping). This was not a jump-on-the-bandwagon signing (the brand booked Charli xcx way before brat was common parlance–or even a publicised album title), and the 32-year-old was wearing the label’s famous collabs (Kenzo in 2016, Mugler in 2023) prior to buying mainline pieces from the luxury houses.
Testament to Charli’s influence is the fact she coaxed Naomi Campbell, as well as Moss junior and her pals, into H&M’s new partywear on a chilly night in the outskirts of Hackney Wick (translation: far from civilization). “H&M unites music, fashion and culture – all themes that make London so uniquely creative. As a South London girl, I’m happy to see a collection that believes in these topics as deeply as I do,” a bobbed Campbell told Vogue on the red carpet, while Charli herself whipped by in a leather skirt suit and crotch-high boots, and PRs barked, “No questions!” to other press.
“Sometimes at those kinds of events, there’s a lot of pressure to morph into someone you’re not,” Charli, born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, confided to us recently. Watching this tour de force rip through her slutty, peppy, era-defining songs, there was not an inch of doubt about who was calling the shots.
