What’s Happening: Brat green is irrefutably the color of the summer, infiltrating our feeds, fashion choices, and even presidential campaigns in acidic bursts. It’s the result of popstar Charli XCX’s laser-sharp read on a thrill-seeking youth culture itching to disavow perfectly polished Instagram aesthetics and embrace their inner mess.

The Download: If last summer was oversaturated with Barbie pink, this summer is all about Brat green. The repulsive slime-adjacent shade has been described as “affronting,” “noxious,” and evoking “bilious sludge,” a “putrid in-between” that isn’t quite chartreuse or lime and counters all notions of green as symbolizing growth and abundance. But according to Charli XCX, the British pop rule-breaker who selected the corrosive color as the branding for her sixth studio album Brat, being hard on the eyes was intentional. “I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong,” she said, noting how she experimented with 65 different colors over five months with creative studio Special Offer before landing on the correct shade. “I want to provoke people. I’m not doing things to be nice.”

Instead, she inadvertently captured the zeitgeist. Brat Summer began when she threw a surprise set at Lot Radio on Brooklyn’s Williamsburg-Greenpoint border in May. She promptly plastered the album art and its blurry sans-serif lettering on a nearby wall, its messaging updated frequently with the album’s promotion cycle and revealed via TikTok live streams. An image generator gave any word or phrase the Brat treatment. The music video to lead single “360” was packed with it-girls. All these marketing tactics worked—Brat won over the internet overnight, washing the entire summer in bursts of puke-green and yielding an endless barrage of memes, merch, and ham-fisted corporate marketing ploys. (The MTA suspending G Train service 24/7 between Brooklyn and Queens seems like the furthest thing from “so Julia.”)

Brat’s high-BPM message lies in embracing your inner mess and flipping off curated perfection, perhaps as your shattered iPhone and half-empty pack of American Spirits spills in the backseat of your late-night Uber home from the club. It indicates the pendulum shifting away from performative influencer slop and checking your Instagram story views. So there’s no irony lost in brands, museums, and even presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris co-opting Brat green to reach Gen Z-ers. (To be fair, though, Harris does have Charli’s endorsement.) According to one report, Brat has generated more than $22.5 million in media impact value since its June release. British Vogue anticipates the shade will feature heavily on catwalks; magazines, even stuffy uptown shelter titles, are publishing breathless get-the-Brat-look roundups left and right.

Well-intentioned and SEO-friendly as they are, the slime-green style guides miss the point. The shade has been a staple in fashion, pop culture, and design through the decades—take Andy Warhol’s embrace of highlighter yellow, the ‘90s anime boom, and Prada’s watershed Spring ‘96 runway show, a pioneer of “ugly chic”—but Brat is a mindset, unbothered and retro-leaning. That spirit is difficult to capture in merch or anything arising from suited executives blathering in a conference room. Searches for white tank tops have skyrocketed; J. Crew surprisingly nailed it with a capsule of “downtown-cool coquettishness” with indie designer Maryam Nassirzadeh. Brat isn’t about following trends; it’s about feeling empowered to be your own favorite reference.

In Their Own Words: The majority of Brat’s rollout was masterminded by Charli XCX herself, which makes the satisfying domination of slime green that much sweeter. “It turns out when you truly make something for yourself,” Rick Rubin wrote in his book The Creative Act, “you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience.”

Surface Says: There’s reason to believe that Brat Summer’s days are numbered, but we’ll never forget how the supercharged hue flipped the script and made us feel.

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There’s no shortage of Michelin-caliber dining in Monte Carlo. There are now no fewer than seven stars in its .81 square miles of land—a number that grows with each passing year. At L’Abysse Monte-Carlo, the first Monegasque outpost of chefs Yannick Alléno and Yasunari Okazaki’s L’Abysse au Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris, that list is all but certain to expand. The duo has now brought their joint venture to the Belle Époque–inspired, five-star Hotel Hermitage.

Guests can expect seasonally driven omakase rooted in a Mediterranean palate with French inflections. Interiors by Galerie Scene Ouverte, the Parisian art and design gallery, feature installations from artists Célia Bertrand, William Coggin, Silver Sentimenti, and Caroline Désile, who in turn evoke the cuisine’s sense of place with abundant references to both the sea and Japan.

In October, four design graduates will descend on New Delhi and Jaipur for the inaugural Shakti Design Residency. The creation of architect Shalini Misra and organized with Basic.Space founder Jesse Lee, the month-long residency will see participants become immersed in the region’s craftsmanship and culture, visit a variety of ateliers and workshops, and collaborate with artisans to create an India-inspired capsule. A panel of world-leading creative mentors—Benjamin Paulin, Marcin Rusak, Yves Béhar, Nina Yashar, and David Alhadeff, among others—will select each participant. At the residency’s end, the most outstanding pieces will be put into production and sold on Basic.Space and Curio.Space.

What inspired Misra to launch the residency now? India’s accelerating economy, its embrace of next-gen technology, and consumers becoming more aware of the value of good design. “The timing feels particularly important as we witness a global shift towards valuing craftsmanship and innovation in design,” she says, noting the residency’s focus on both artisanship and entrepreneurship. “India is recognized for its technology expertise and a willingness to embrace the role of design in the creation of a better future.” The Shakti Design Residency is accepting applications until July 31.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Arthur Ross Gallery has tapped Emily Zimmerman to be its next director of exhibitions and curatorial affairs. The veteran curator and lecturer brings experience from previous university gallery roles, including the Experimental Media and Performing Art Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Washington. Zimmerman’s promotion comes two years after joining the gallery as assistant director in 2022.

Established in 1586 in the forest of Moselle, France, Saint-Louis escapes the ephemeral with more than 430 years of mouth-blown and handmade creations, ranging from tableware and decoration to lighting and beyond.

Surface Says: One of France’s most venerated crystal manufacturers, Saint-Louis skillfully reconciles 19th-century artisan know-how with contemporary style. Some of our favorite designers—Paola Navone, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, Kiki van Eijk—have created unforgettable pieces for the company.

Archeologists discover remnants of an ancient Roman circus in Spain.

In one Texan town, Bitcoin mining is wreaking havoc on its denizens’ health.

The founder of Everlane’s latest venture targets Gen-Z’s wellness obsession.

Setting buildings aflame allows insurance companies to study fire resistance.