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Of course the Green candidate wore green, though the correct term – the 2026 TikTok one – is “gross green”.
Coined by New York magazine, and seen all over the high street as well as on the cover of Caro Claire Burke’s forthcoming satirical novel Yesteryear, it’s actually chartreuse. But where’s the fun in calling it that? And it’s not so much a colour as a mood.
As if to ratify its potential to go viral, “phlegm green” is the Instagram term for the colour worn by Hannah Spencer as she was unveiled as Westminster’s latest MP. But as is the case when social media successfully baits the wider culture, weird trends are also our most desirable.
As a young millennial, it won’t have escaped Spencer that the waistcoat might cause a stir. Worn twice in the past 24 hours – she changed only her undershirt in between winning and Friday’s press conference – it’s not a world away from “brat green”, the hit colour of summer 2024.
As a political statement, it is very much A Deliberate Choice and a sign that Spencer is plugged into the taste of the high street and younger voters.
A brief moment in popular culture that informs a political campaign? We’ve been here before. Someone on Kamala Harris’s campaign team adopted the Brat aesthetic on social media and she caught the attention of the younger voter by successfully meme-ing a colour into a political symbol.
There is a risk in public figures tapping into a trend. Then again, social media is truly a fishbowl, and where the general public has been trained to receive information, such as a politician’s choice of outfit, intention is irrelevant.
Spencer at 34 is a millennial and knowingly online. And the more fractured our culture, the more we crave something universal to hitch our wagon to. Viral colours – Barbie pink, brat green – are the language of today and part of a modern practice of finding meaning in innocuous things with daft names. But it’s also quite fun. And trust me, once you name it you won’t stop seeing it.
