Who could have predicted that, in the year of our lord, two thousand and nineteen, one of our most popular young musicians would be dressed head-to-shins in the color of nuclear waste, and doing so incredibly well? Against all odds, clothing, hair dye, and beauty products the color of slime have remained steadily popular for several years now. “Toxic green,” they call it. “Shrek core,” if you prefer, or maybe “alien chic.”
It’s slime season, if you will. And you know who is doing it the best these days? Billie Eilish, queen of slime. A scroll through her Instagram and performance looks suggest that slime is the defining color of the defining teen of the moment. Here she is in Hamburg, Germany, being the slimiest of all slime hounds this slime season:
How did we get here? It starts, as most trends do these days, with a bit of ironic nostalgia. Marc Summers, who hosted Nickelodeon’s Double Dare, told Tech Insider in the summer of 2017, “You know, it’s weird. Slime is hot again,” and it was like designers were like, Hey, wow, slime, huh? What a concept. (Designers could have been listening to the color forecasters over at Pantone, which declared “greenery” 2017’s color of the year, but who’s to say that a host of an old kids show that dunked its contestants in a faux–sewage substance didn’t launch a trend? This one’s a draw.)
Tom Ford showed lime green leopard-print suiting in February 2018 for its fall show. Versace incorporated it too that season. It could be found at beloved brands like Fenty x Puma, and I don’t think Jeremy Scott ever stopped using it. One year ago, almost to the day, SZA in a neon green wig declared, “Dees bitches ain’t slime enuff,” and honestly she was right. There was way more slime to be had.
Neon green fits in with a recent tilt toward ’80s fashion, which has reintroduced ruffles and big shoulders—big everything, really—into our clothes, though they called it “chartreuse” then. Hear this from the last time everyone was talking about the color—1988—via the New York Times: “It’s truly unfortunate that somebody is trying to promote chartreuse,” said renowned Elizabeth Arden makeup artist Pablo Manzoni. “Chartreuse is a miserable color. Nobody looks good in it. Because of the high condensation of green and yellow, it is lethal, I repeat, lethal. The teeth look yellow. This is just a deadly thing.”
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