Fashion's engagement with food has expanded significantly, moving beyond simple prints to encompass collaborations, material innovation, and a deeper exploration of food as a cultural signifier. Designers like JW Anderson have used everyday vegetables such as radishes, butternut squash, and peaches in their collections, aiming to re-propose normality and highlight the beauty in mundane items. Moschino's SS22 show also prominently featured various junk foods, indicating a sustained trend of edibles in fashion. High-end brands are also releasing food-shaped accessories, such as Loewe's tomato and artichoke clutches, and Moschino's pizza and baguette handbags, often going viral on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The pandemic played a role in this trend, with an explosion in restaurant merchandise as eateries sought to supplement income through T-shirts and tote bags. Brands like Carhartt WIP collaborated with establishments such as Dom's Subs to offer exposure. Furthermore, designers like Junya Watanabe, through Comme des Garçons, have featured London restaurants like St John on workwear jackets in his SS20 collection and collaborated with Drake's. Watanabe's SS21 collection also included T-shirts printed with cookbook covers by Max Halley and Josh Niland, turning culinary items into symbols of identity, similar to band merchandise.
Beyond aesthetics, food is inspiring sustainable material innovation. Companies like Pangaia have developed Frutfiber from banana, bamboo, and pineapple leaves to create athleisure wear, reducing reliance on water-intensive cotton and agricultural waste. Similarly, Bananatex uses banana plants to create durable technical fabrics for accessories like laptop sleeves (€110) and rucksacks (€275), providing stable income for farming communities. Vegea, a Milan-based textile hub, creates imitation leather from grape waste, with Pangaia collaborating on sneakers ($153) to address the 6.5 billion liters of waste from the wine industry annually. This convergence of food and fashion reflects a desire for joy, comfort, and authenticity in design, making luxury more emotionally accessible and visually compelling for modern consumers.
