Paris Hilton has some regrets: If she had to do it all again, she told Today.com in 2021, she wouldn’t wear all that Von Dutch. Probably not Ed Hardy, either. In the early 2000s, the flashy, biker culture-inspired street fashions of French designer Christian Audigier were practically synonymous with a tabloid media that eagerly splashed photos of stars like Paris, Pamela, Britney, Justin, and Jay-Z in logo-emblazoned trucker hats and teeny-tiny baby tees across supermarkets. Then, as recounted in a 2021 documentary about the brand’s absurdly colorful and criminal backstory, it all went south. By that point, of course, Von Dutch was already surging back to life, embraced by a new generation of social-media-savvy celebs like Kylie Jenner and Megan Thee Stallion. This year, rapper and reality star Sukihana wore a Von Dutch look to the Grammys.
What a perfect parable for Charli XCX—Y2K-obsessed millennial, fashion icon, and notoriously under-appreciated pop talent using wicked meta-commentary to dare you to call her a flop. “Cult classic but I still pop,” she teases on new single “Von Dutch,” the first taste of an anticipated sixth solo album called Brat. Her “Von Dutch” is made of helium and hydraulics, an easyFun production with its heart in the club and its ass on a Harley. It’s another chapter in the singer-producer’s gleeful participatory parody of celebrity culture—and a banger built to go off at last weekend’s Boiler Room warehouse set (still waiting for my invite), where Charli also debuted snippets of tracks identified as “Get Into It (Spring Breakers)” and “365 Party Girl.” Pass the Jägerbombs because Brat sounds like a rager.
