What’s Charli XCX’s “SS26” About?
The pop star will livestream a new video directed by TORSO on Thursday May 21
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
Charli XCX has never been subtle about her influences, but her latest move pulls from an unexpected source: fashion week. The hyperpop architect just announced a livestream titled "the presentation of Charli XCX SS26," dropping May 21 — and if the accompanying lyrics are anything to go by, she's treating the whole thing less like a collection debut and more like a closing statement on civilization itself.
The video, directed by TORSO — the Parisian duo of Miodrag Manojlovic and Lukas von Haller, who are also behind Madonna's Confessions II short film — marks the pair's second collaboration with Charli after the feverish, airport-set "Von Dutch" video in 2024, according to Harper's Bazaar. She published the full lyrics on her Substack, and they land somewhere between fashion cynicism and apocalypse fantasy. The chorus: "Spring Summer 26 / When the world is gonna end no hope for any of it / Yeah we're walking on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing's gonna save us not music fashion or film." Cheerful stuff.
The Rock Pivot That Wasn't (Kind Of)
This arrives hot on the heels of "Rock Music," which triggered a media frenzy after British Vogue suggested Charli was executing a full genre overhaul. She shut that down immediately — "I never said I was making a rock album" — but the song itself is undeniably something: crashing cymbals, blown-out guitars, and Charli embodying every rock cliché with the precision of someone who has studied the genre from a deliberate, ironic distance. Cigarettes. Mosh pits. Moody black-and-white. It's hyperpop in a leather jacket.
"SS26" seems to continue in that spirit — irreverent, a little unhinged, pointed. The verses nod to being taken out of context, getting hacked, and the art of the notes-app apology delivered with zero remorse. There's a target somewhere in these lyrics, whether it's a specific person or the entire content-eating, context-collapsing machine of modern culture. The character she's inhabiting tells herself she'll be fine as long as she looks good in the clothes — a coping mechanism Charli seems to find both relatable and completely delusional.
What's sharp here is the framing: using the language of fashion — seasonal collections, runway presentations, the performance of newness — to talk about nihilism. The runway goes straight to hell, but at least it's well-styled. Whether this signals the sonic direction of her Brat follow-up or just another provocation in a long line of them, Charli has done what she always does: made you pay attention before the thing even exists.
The dance floor may or may not be dead, but Charli XCX is clearly having the most fun at the funeral.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
