Charli XCX is back with a new song “SS26.” It arrives alongside a visual from “Von Dutch” director Torso, which places Charli in the glamorous chaos of a major fashion show. She rocks a variety of looks on and off the runway and even recovers from a catwalk stumble straight out of Sex and the City—and that’s all before her dressing room explodes. Watch it below.
Charli first teased the new song in a Substack post Monday, posting a text that appeared to be either song lyrics or a fashion-capsule manifesto. “Think my politics could work as a press strategy,” she wrote, “And my heritage could give me quite the USP/Can’t hide the fact I’d rather take the easy road.” Turns out they were the former, riffing on celebrity and world affairs via “a runway that goes straight to hell.” The video continues the theme, set on a runway that “goes straight to hell” during a couture season that just might coincide with “when the world is gonna end.” It opens with a guest appearance from former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Rotfield, who remarks from the front row: “Fashion won’t save us. But let’s go on the runway and walk.” The singer Abra also makes a cameo.
“SS26” follows “Rock Music,” her first standalone single since the Brat campaign, followed a few days later by a loosie called “I Keep On Thinking Bout You Every Single Day and Night” that was exclusive to vinyl and her Instagram page. Her companion album to Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights came out in mid February.