The new Acne Studios campaign, with Charli XCX as its muse, explores a postmodern aesthetic of fragmentation, subversion, and vulnerability. A dialogue between fashion and music that embodies contemporary excess and indifference.
words DOMENICO COSTANTINI
Charli XCX is the quintessential icon built for the digital age. Her career, which began on Myspace in East London’s underground raves, has evolved to redefine the rules of pop. From I Love It to Brat, Charli crosses the boundaries between the mainstream and the underground, embodying a hyperrealist pop that intertwines authenticity and artifice. With her voice altered by auto-tune and lyrics imbued with self-irony and insecurity, Charli is not just a singer, but a figure capable of living and representing the fragmented, unruly, and chaotic side of contemporary culture.
In this new Spring/Summer 2025 campaign by Acne Studios, shot by artist Talia Chetrit, Charli transforms into a face that blurs and distorts. The photographs portray Charli in intimate and distant poses, capturing the essence of a glitch aesthetic where the image is balanced between the real and the digital, between vulnerability and self-celebration. The iconic iridescent denim and trompe-l’œil of the collection seem to adhere to Charli like a second skin, amplifying the perception of a person who is never just a face, but an image that resonates with echoes and overlaps.
Charli describes Acne Studios as an integral part of her musical journey: “I’ve worn Acne Studios in my daily life forever and the brand has become a big part of this album. It makes me feel confident, I recognize myself in their clothes, which are simple and cool.” Words that reveal how fashion for Charli is not simply an aesthetic tool, but a visual language through which to define and rediscover herself.
The campaign itself is a work that explores the theme of the fusion between image and identity. Talia Chetrit, who has always been interested in capturing intimacy and sexuality with a detached gaze, transforms Charli into a muse who reflects on herself, an almost timeless figure, suspended between the desire to be seen and the will to protect her vulnerability. Each shot is a window into Charli who seems to escape the narrative, inviting the viewer to reconstruct their idea of who she is.
“Charli is a natural muse for Acne Studios,” says Jonny Johansson, Creative Director of the brand. “There is something elusive about her, a tension between her punk energy and the pop charm that made her famous. She represents a constant boundary between being a glamorous diva and a postmodern anti-diva.” With Charli, the brand celebrates a bold beauty, which resonates in the creases and tears of the garments, in the fabrics that, like her, seem to echo an indefinite past and future, as if they did not belong to any era.
In Brat, Charli explores apathy, self-indulgence, and a strange vulnerability. “It’s okay to just admit that you’re jealous of me,” she sings in the track “Von Dutch,” in a sonic self-portrait that embraces the maximalism and satire of hyperpop. This insolent, irreverent, and disarming side of Charli’s character seems to align perfectly with the identity of Acne Studios, a brand that has made the art of subversion its signature. Acne Studios sees in Charli a change of mood, a muse capable of crossing the spaces between public and private, between provocation and fragility, making opposites coexist without ever fully resolving.
