If Charli XCX is known for one thing – aside from providing the soundtrack to messy parties everywhere from 2012 to this summer – it’s her fashion sense. Whether she’s wearing knee-high velour fuschia boots like someone who just won a RuPaul’s Drag Race challenge, black lingerie draped in netting like a Jackie Collins character post-seduction, an exact replica of Paris Hilton’s sparkly 21st birthday party outfit, or, simply, cotton pants and a vest, the girl knows how to turn a look.
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Presumably her fans know how to turn a look, too – otherwise they wouldn’t be very good Charli XCX fans, would they. You can basically tell if someone’s a Charli fan by how much they look as if they fell inside Depop and emerged in some combo of 90s soft grunge meets Y2K socialite meets subtle kink undertones. Crucially, the Charli fan knows how to stay up until 4AM and still look dewy faced the next morning – presumably because they are 21 years old.Which is why we sent VICE photographer Aiyush Pachnanda down to Alexandra Palace on Thursday the 19th of May, where streams of people were queuing for hours ahead of her sold-out London performance on the Crash tour. Among the screams of excitement and discarded pink gin and tonic cans, there were fishnets, there were corsets, there were pleather harnesses and there were aquamarine nipple tassels. Here are some of the best fits of the night (of which there were plenty):