Move over, Billie Eilish, there’s a new environmentally-conscious Gen Z pop star in the mix, and it’s none other than Chappell Roan. Despite her classification as a “geriatric Gen Zer” (born near the very beginning of the generation’s “hatching” in 1998), there’s no denying Roan as being, these days, perhaps even more influential on her age group than “zygote” Gen Z pop stars like Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. The latter two, although often vocal about various “do-gooding” endeavors (for Rodrigo, it’s less about the environment than her Fund 4 Good, which aims to “support community based non-profits and girls’ education, support reproductive rights and prevent gender-based violence”), have never been quite as upfront and vehement as Roan is in the October issue of Rolling Stone for which she serves as the cover star (complete with the title, “A Star Is Born”—the Lady Gaga allusion being rather over-the-top, but hey, no one ever said that subtlety sells).
Among other quotable chestnuts found in the article, Roan announces, “All the money [I make] goes to the world-building [oy, that phrase]. That’s why I am saying no to every fucking brand deal right now, because I’m like ‘Does it fit in this world?’ No, H&M does not fit in this world. Also, fuck H&M.” While Roan could have simply stopped at “every fucking brand deal,” she opted to call out H&M in particular. A pointed choice considering Charli XCX’s highly-publicized, fresh collaboration with the fast-fashion juggernaut. A collab that has many declaring that Brat summer is effortlessly poised to become Brat autumn (with a remix edition of the album coming out in October to further emphasize the seamless transition). And why not? When there’s still so much more money to be made off of this particular “femininomenon” for Charli? Indeed, like Chappell, she’s been frequently mentioned as one of the three most celebrated pop stars of the year—and all of whom have been slogging at it for roughly a decade only to finally be met with insane, Taylor Swift-level obsession in 2024 (though one wonders if any fans can truly be as obsessed [and willing to spend as much money to prove it] as a Swiftie). Charli, of course, has actually been in the spotlight since at least 2012, when Icona Pop’s “I Love It” (which Charli wrote, but didn’t feel was right for herself as a “solo” effort). Well over ten years. It’s just that, as with everything, Gen Z isn’t aware of shit prior to their own “era” until and unless it becomes a trend.
Which, one supposes is why it’s good that Roan is trying to use her own “trending” nature to make a big, politically and environmentally-conscious statement while she can. Apart from already insisting that fame can be repurposed from toxic to tolerable, Roan is focusing in on a cause that’s supposedly near and dear to Gen Z, despite their greater addiction to fast fashion than any previous generation. Particularly with ultra-cheap online outlets like AliExpress, Temu, Shein and Romwe (and, quelle surprise, Shein owns Romwe, hence the very similar prices and products) “tempting” them with their shitty but attainable wares. Compared to those entities, H&M seems almost “saintly” (though its latest offense is continuing to operate its many store locations in Israel amid the ongoing Palestinian genocide).
Thus, Roan’s open vitriol toward a fast fashion player that is hardly all that influential to Gen Z compared to the abovementioned ilk comes across more like shade. Which is also odd when considering that, per Roan’s gushing account, Charli XCX was the first of the “pop girls” to reach out to her after she went on that previously mentioned tirade about fame and posted it to TikTok. It was during a soundcheck in Dublin that she stated, “I love Charli so much. She was like the first girl to reach out and check on me. She was like ‘Hi, this is about to get really hard and if you need a friend, I’ll be here for you’. So it’s just so sick to see her just ruling the fucking world and doing it her way.” But if being a spokesperson for H&M—even allowing the company to adopt her signature Brat green backdrop for its logo—is “doing it her way,” maybe Roan isn’t entirely convinced of XCX’s artistic genius.
Then again, perhaps Roan really doesn’t have that much room to talk/get on a soapbox. For, even though she might make a big production about being seen with her own reusable water bottle at an awards ceremony or bringing her own carpet to the red carpet for that same awards ceremony (the VMAs), she’s also the same “artist” willing to allow her hit, “Hot To Go!,” to appear in a Target commercial for the “Cuddle Collab.” Maybe she thought that, because the ad centers on dogs and cats, it could eke by the proverbial “watchdogs” (no pet pun intended) of environmental causes. And it probably will, for there is little that Roan can do wrong at the moment, whereas Charli has already started to lose cachet for being “too corporate,” what with the H&M collab and Kamala Harris’ campaign using Brat for its own “marketing” purposes, ergo a much older, wider range of demographics becoming aware of her (an automatic turnoff to youth culture).
And while Roan might not have been cognizant that Charli was doing the campaign when she made those anti-H&M comments for the Rolling Stone feature, it seems as though her comments underlyingly constitute more Gen Z knife-digging aimed into the backs of millennials like Charli, who was at least spared from Roan name-checking Skims, too (otherwise known as: XCX’s other sellout collab of the moment). That would have been really pointed. But also, a necessary pushback against the inexplicable reign of Kim Kardashian as some kind of “high-minded businesswoman.”
In any case, it’s not as though Eilish is much for genuinely backing up her environmental exhortations either, what with participating in XCX’s underwear-laden “Guess” video. Because, regardless of insisting that all those mountains upon mountains of “unused” panties would be donated to an organization that supports survivors of domestic violence (to be sure, an unexpected cause to align with sexy undies), the “fast fashion-chic” look of the video’s most memorable backdrop is enough to bury that message—literally. Meanwhile, Roan wants to resurrect it in a manner, “unwittingly” or not, that puts a glaring spotlight on how “anti-Gen Z” in sentiment XCX ultimately is despite her newfound resonance with the generation that supposedly finds most millennials to be inherently cringe. And not just for their environmental practices (that actually aren’t worse than what Gen Z does with its own China-based fast fashion obsession).
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