In a tweet that now has 62 million views, Pop Crave (a Twitter account that falls somewhere between a fan account and Perez Hilton) posted a photo of Charli in her post-Coachella set outfit—a white mini dress with a faux Miss America-type spray-painted sash reading “Miss Should Be Headliner.”
What could have been an innocuous pop update re-post quickly turned into a music stan firestorm. “Green Day was the Headliner for the night,” the post read, positioning Charli’s statement dress as a slight against the seminal millennial pop-punk band.
Charli’s no stranger to showing her hyper-confidence through her clothes: before her 2022 album Crash was released, she was papped in a shirt that read “They Don’t Make Statues of Critics” spawning similar internet outrage. The following year, she was pictured outside the Brit Awards wearing a baby tee with “Real Winner” seemingly Sharpie-d across the front. So where did the latest lightning rod sash come from? We talked with New York City designer Briah Artemis Taubman about creation, craft, and controversy.
i-D: It seems like, by association, you’re the unfortunate main character of pop music Twitter at the moment, how are you feeling?
Briah Artemis Taubman: That’s so funny because I don’t have a Twitter so I have no idea! My friends are like, “Wait. Your dress is all over my Twitter” and I’m like, “What are you talking about?”
Before we get into that, can you tell us a bit about your brand and how you got started?
I went to Parsons and studied fashion design and I’ve been interning for brands since I was 15. I started at Anna Sui, then Eckhaus Latta, Proenza and Batsheva. Now for my day job, I do assistant styling for celebrity stylists. For my brand, I’ve released two collections so far. I’m mostly a knitwear designer. I make almost everything out of my apartment! It’s still very small. Each piece is really special to me and tells a story.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the piece that Charli wore and the collection it comes from?
The whole idea behind the collection is success, all different ideas of success personified through these different characters—financial success, material success, athleticism. Each look talks about those different issues. It’s like, when you’re striving your whole life to be successful and then when you get there, are you even happy? And are you even really successful at the end of the day? For Charli’s look, I made a sash Miss Universe dress and I sent it to Charli’s team. I was like, I can personalize this for you if you want! We worked together to make that specific silhouette.
When did you end up making the piece she wore at Coachella?
Chris [Horan]’s team reached out to me for her entire tour not that long ago. I made the dress in two days at the beginning of April and then overnighted it to them on Wednesday. I originally had an idea that was like “Oh she’s performing in New York, I could do Miss New York” and then they were like, well, actually we could do this “Should be the headliner.” I was thinking: I bet this is for Coachella. I grew up in LA going to Coachella every year so I was like if this is for Coachella I’m gonna lose my absolute shit.
So you had to put the pieces together yourself about when it might get worn?
Exactly. I’m an assistant stylist so I know how this stuff works. I don’t believe it until I see it and there are photographs.
What was the first notification that you got that she ended up wearing it?
An xcxcloset account! I was like, oh, okay, I guess they already found me somehow? I don’t know how they found that it was my brand!
How has the past day been for you with the reaction to everything?
I mean, it’s been pretty cool because for me, I personally just love Charli. It was actually on my 2025 manifestation board to work with her. I’ve never made a manifestation board in my life, but I decided this year I would. I’ve already gotten a few sales on the Miss Universe dress and that’s amazing obviously for the brand. I personally really love when people don’t like my stuff. It’s made me really happy that there’s discourse because I love, like, hate? I don’t know. I love when people have conversations about things and that’s all I really care about.
Do you think she should have been a headliner?
I’m obviously biased. I do think she should have been the headliner. But I also don’t think it makes her better or worse than any other artist, I just think that the people who are going to Coachella, the majority probably would have aligned more with Charli? But I’m also not really a Green Day fan so I can’t compare the two.
If you were in charge of Coachella, who would have been the headliners?
Charli, Gaga, and Tyla.
Is Brat summer officially over, do you have any inside info you can share on its future?
Not to be dramatic but I think that Brat summer, or just Brat era as a whole, is really important. I saw that Alix Earle posted the crowd at Lady Gaga and that no one was dancing. That genuinely infuriates me because Lady Gaga is one of the best to ever do it. I feel like Brat is all about just having fun in the moment, doing whatever the fuck you want, not caring what anyone thinks. It doesn’t need to be like Brat green, and that whole thing forever, but I hope people continue to do whatever they want and that they do it without caring about other people’s opinions.
photography Charli XCX by Myles Hendrik courtesy of Guess Jeans