Rosalía’s goth lily and cig bouquet said RIP to Brat Summer

Brat summer is dead, long live Brat Summer? Charli xcx’s album and its subsequent Lorde, Billie Eilish, Robyn, and Yung Lean remixes might continue to dominate our playlists, but the internet is well and truly done with that putrid shade of slime green and everything that comes with it. When a Presidential candidate is rebranding their campaign in the spirit of Brat, and brands like Marks & Spencer – a very British retailer best known for big granny pants and sensible shoes rather than doing bumps of ket at the rave – is getting in on the act, you know it’s all over.

This weekend, another nail was hammered into the Brat coffin, as Rosalia turned up to Charli’s 32nd birthday party in LA clutching a massive bouquet of black Calla lilies. In case you’re not clued up on your flower species, this particular lily is the traditional bloom associated with funerals, and that Motomami went for a black version gave an added goth-y edge. But flowers for your mate’s birthday, goth or not: so far, so normal, right? 

Wrong. Though nothing looked amiss at first glance, a closer inspection revealed that the stems of the lilies had been removed, and in their place were a swathe of ciggies. Poking out from the flowers’ sculptural petals, some of them had been bent skewiff on the way to the party, which is honestly so Brat, while hidden between the stems were yet more packets of Parliament cigarettes ready to be puffed. 

Brat Summer might be over, but instead of prolonging the pain of Percy Pig “Apple” dance TikToks and your mum’s fave celeb giving it a deeply cringe shout-out, Charli and her friends are driving a stake through her heart and killing off what they started. And if that’s not the epitome of Brat, I don’t know what is.

Revisit our 2023 cover shoot in the gallery above.