2024 Was the Year of Green, No Matter What Pantone Says
CultureFrom Wicked to The Substance to (of course) Charli XCX’s brat, green wasn’t just a trendy shade—it was a symbol of the unruly, in-your-face femininity that defined some of the year's biggest pop-cultural moments.By Esther ZuckermanDecember 20, 2024NEW WINDSOR, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 10: Charli XCX shared her new remix album with a few hundred fans at a special event at Storm King Oct. 10. (Maria M. SilvaAlbany Times Union/Hearst NewspapersSave this storySaveSave this storySaveEarlier this month, the color authorities at Pantone announced that the color of the year for 2025 would be "Mocha Mousse." 2024’s color of the year, at least per Pantone, was “Peach Fuzz.” Both are sort of classy colors, the kind you can imagine an influencer picking out to adorn the accent wall of their suspiciously unaffordable-looking lower-Manhattan apartment.But the rest of us know that if any color has defined the past 12 months, it's not a shade of brown or pink. This has been the year of green. And not some kind of mild mint green or tasteful hunter green, either. We're talking loud green. Brash, in-your-face green. A green that announces its presence with a scream. Green with hints of flash or a touch of bile, in certain cases. Green that dares you to reject it. Green!This has been, unequivocally, the year of green in cinema. There's Wicked, of course, where the heroine played by Cynthia Erivo has green skin. But there's also The Substance, where the title drug comes in the form of a translucent acid-green liquid. Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice popped up again in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (oh, no—I said it three times) with hair the color of split-pea vomit. Green was also a major motif in Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, which used the bright shade of the hard court as a representation of the energy coursing between the two men on it and the woman watching from the sidelines.But if there is a green queen, it's "brat green," the green that adorns the cover of Charli XCX's wildly-acclaimed sixth album and its the-same-but-different remix companion. In an interview with Billboard she said she thought the shade was "actually quite disgusting" and wanted it to be "unfriendly and uncool." Somehow that "disgusting" shade—Pantone 3507C—became ubiquitous and stylish. Sure, you have to get on its wavelength, but it's not all that gross when you really spend time with it. With a dose of it opposite something monochrome it can even be sexy.That's the thing about green, and perhaps the defining characteristic of all the green that we've been confronted with this year, while we're being told it's gross and ugly, it's actually alluring. Take for instance the year’s other major moment of green representation this year: Wicked.WICKED, Cynthia Erivo, 2024. © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection©Universal/Courtesy Everett CollectionIn Jon Chu's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical, it's clear we're supposed to think that Elphaba's green skin is horrifying. All her fellow Shiz University students make revolted faces when they first see her. In the big "Defying Gravity" finale, the evil Madame Morrible uses the green to confirm that it's an "outward manifestorium"—people in Oz talk like this—of her villainous nature. But obviously we the audience know that Elphaba's green skin is pretty fabulous.Cynthia Erivo has spoken about how carefully she worked with the film's makeup artist to pick the exact right shade of green, using a highlighter yellow to make sure her own skin tone was coming through underneath. The effect is a green that feels somehow both natural and fantastical at the same time. It's appropriately shocking at first, but also beautiful.Most PopularGQ RecommendsIn 2024, Holiday Sweaters Are More Than a PunchlineBy Reed NelsonSales (Style)8 Timeless Colognes Are at Nose-Tingling Discounts TodayBy The Editors of GQSales (Style)15 Last-Chance Watch Deals Resolutely Ticking OnBy Avidan GrossmanMost of these greens come to define unruly women, from Charli to Elphaba to Elisabeth Sparkle and Sue in The Substance. Green is the shade of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) in Challengers letting her ambition fuel her. In The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat, the color represents a tempting elixir. The Substance is a chemical cocktail of uncertain provenance that will make a new, younger you emerge from your spine. The acid-green color implies that The Substance is probably bad for you—and of course it is—but it's also the kind of thing you just can't resist. That's certainly true for Elisabeth (Demi Moore), a washed-up star who injects it and finds herself battling for control over her body and soul with her younger self, Sue (Margaret Qualley).The Substance is bratty in the way that Charli XCX is bratty. It's about hotness with a side of body horror. On Brat, Charli alternates between party girl anthems and ballads about the anxiety of being in your 30s; in The Substance, Fargeat mixes sleek, enticing images of tight butts in '8
Earlier this month, the color authorities at Pantone announced that the color of the year for 2025 would be "Mocha Mousse." 2024’s color of the year, at least per Pantone, was “Peach Fuzz.” Both are sort of classy colors, the kind you can imagine an influencer picking out to adorn the accent wall of their suspiciously unaffordable-looking lower-Manhattan apartment.
But the rest of us know that if any color has defined the past 12 months, it's not a shade of brown or pink. This has been the year of green. And not some kind of mild mint green or tasteful hunter green, either. We're talking loud green. Brash, in-your-face green. A green that announces its presence with a scream. Green with hints of flash or a touch of bile, in certain cases. Green that dares you to reject it. Green!
This has been, unequivocally, the year of green in cinema. There's Wicked, of course, where the heroine played by Cynthia Erivo has green skin. But there's also The Substance, where the title drug comes in the form of a translucent acid-green liquid. Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice popped up again in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (oh, no—I said it three times) with hair the color of split-pea vomit. Green was also a major motif in Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, which used the bright shade of the hard court as a representation of the energy coursing between the two men on it and the woman watching from the sidelines.
But if there is a green queen, it's "brat green," the green that adorns the cover of Charli XCX's wildly-acclaimed sixth album and its the-same-but-different remix companion. In an interview with Billboard she said she thought the shade was "actually quite disgusting" and wanted it to be "unfriendly and uncool." Somehow that "disgusting" shade—Pantone 3507C—became ubiquitous and stylish. Sure, you have to get on its wavelength, but it's not all that gross when you really spend time with it. With a dose of it opposite something monochrome it can even be sexy.
That's the thing about green, and perhaps the defining characteristic of all the green that we've been confronted with this year, while we're being told it's gross and ugly, it's actually alluring. Take for instance the year’s other major moment of green representation this year: Wicked..jpg)
In Jon Chu's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical, it's clear we're supposed to think that Elphaba's green skin is horrifying. All her fellow Shiz University students make revolted faces when they first see her. In the big "Defying Gravity" finale, the evil Madame Morrible uses the green to confirm that it's an "outward manifestorium"—people in Oz talk like this—of her villainous nature. But obviously we the audience know that Elphaba's green skin is pretty fabulous.
Cynthia Erivo has spoken about how carefully she worked with the film's makeup artist to pick the exact right shade of green, using a highlighter yellow to make sure her own skin tone was coming through underneath. The effect is a green that feels somehow both natural and fantastical at the same time. It's appropriately shocking at first, but also beautiful.
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Most of these greens come to define unruly women, from Charli to Elphaba to Elisabeth Sparkle and Sue in The Substance. Green is the shade of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) in Challengers letting her ambition fuel her. In The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat, the color represents a tempting elixir. The Substance is a chemical cocktail of uncertain provenance that will make a new, younger you emerge from your spine. The acid-green color implies that The Substance is probably bad for you—and of course it is—but it's also the kind of thing you just can't resist. That's certainly true for Elisabeth (Demi Moore), a washed-up star who injects it and finds herself battling for control over her body and soul with her younger self, Sue (Margaret Qualley).
The Substance is bratty in the way that Charli XCX is bratty. It's about hotness with a side of body horror. On Brat, Charli alternates between party girl anthems and ballads about the anxiety of being in your 30s; in The Substance, Fargeat mixes sleek, enticing images of tight butts in '80s workout gear with blood splatter that puts Italian giallo horror to shame. That's what this shade of green implies.
As 2024 winds down, I hope we’ll take the spirit of green with us into the new year. Green gives you the right to be unappealing and sexy at the same time. It allows you to be a 365 party girl and say that nobody in all of Oz no wizard that there is, or was, is ever going to bring you down. Long live green.
