I’m in the wardrobe at the Hotel Chelsea at the after-party for Charli XCX’s Times Square performance with H&M when I hear her distinctive Essex accent coming through my speakerphone. “Hellooo!”

She is also on her way to the event, in a car, but there is so much going on that we decide to talk on the phone before she arrives. Feeling a little funny, I kneel in the corner of a red-carpeted room and try to hear her as the party bump into each other at close range. But then again, is there anything more awesome than a little chaos?

For years, it felt like “quiet luxury” would never go away. But then Charli let go Brat and everyone wanted to wear smudged eyeliner, black boots and torn tights. Her album, with its distinct party-girl aesthetic, helped usher in a new mood, one that feels fun in a time where fun is desperately needed.

“I feel like we’re in this world where there’s so much pressure to maintain the standard of perfection, and it’s just not realistic,” she says. “I think when you see someone who embraces their flaws and is messy, you recognize a little bit of yourself in that. You feel like it’s okay to be messy yourself.”

She continues, adding, “I really like when I see people embracing their wildness and making mistakes. I think there’s a charm to screwing up. It feels more real. I feel like people could use that a little more.” And she’s right. They could and they did.

As for how she came to define the look for this era of her career, she says, “I wanted to keep everything pretty minimal. I think that was very important. I think there’s an element of really stripping things down and just wear the clothes that I would wear to a party…having a wardrobe full of basics, like your favorite sunglasses, your favorite white tank top, your favorite black jacket you can wear at 5am and some really good black boots.”

When I point out how black boots became an unexpected uniform for concertgoers on the Sweat Tour, she laughs. Somehow she’s managed to claim both a color (slimey brat green) and a boot (long, black and hot, with a slightly bitchy heel). “There were so many people dressed like Troye (Sivan) and so many people dressed like me. Also, there’s always a sea of ​​green clothes… It’s just really fun that people who come to the shows feel like they want to go all out. And the effort that went into some of these outfits is really amazing. We really love the fans for doing that, it’s so cool and cute.”

As for what she wears on stage, it doesn’t really deviate from what she wears in her everyday life, which makes sense. Being Charli is about perfecting the day-to-night look because she always goes from day to night, and she always, always ends up at the party.

“It is very important for it to feel like clothes that I would actually wear. The wardrobe on stage is just my wardrobe—my favorite t-shirts, my favorite miniskirts, and a few things that designers tailored for me that I can’t wait to wear in my life, you know?”

And she’s practical too. She likes lots of bags, but only as long as they fit all the essentials: “My sunglasses, headphones, lighters — those are my staples, I’d say.” The only no-go is when a bag is “so small that I can’t put my phone in it, I don’t like that at all. I like a big bag that I can throw a lot of things in.”

Of course, what she wore to perform for a sea of ​​thousands in Times Square was typical of her: a black dress with a high leg slit and a pair of her signature black sunglasses. Earlier this week, she went viral on X for appearing on SNL with a bag slung over her shoulder. But what would have felt awkward to anyone else felt right on her, because it’s not hard to imagine her throwing on a bag to go on stage and then the club right after.

When I ask her what makes her feel most like herself, she says, “Definitely a pair of black sunglasses, like the H&M ones I wore to perform. With any outfit, I put on black sunglasses and then I feel like me.”

Sure enough, as I get off the phone and head back to the party, I look around and see a handful of guests in oversized black sunglasses and towering black boots. Someone near me gasps and screams “I love her” as Charli enters the room to take her place next to the DJ booth. When Anderson.Paak performs, she starts dancing.

And then something unexpected happens. People don’t pick up their phones to start catching her. Instead, the room lets loose. People are really starting to dance, in the kind of unrestrained way usually reserved for late nights at a rave rather than a branded party on a Monday night. It’s clear that there’s something about Charli XCX – by being completely herself, she has the power to make people feel like they can be themselves too.

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