Food is the new black. Call it a slow simmer, if you will, but
fashion’s fixation with food runs far deeper than alliterative appeal.
They feed off each other: think of Dolce & Gabbana’s feature print of spring/summer ‘11/’12
(the ingredients of a vegetable soup strewn as liberally as the
traditional floral print) or of American supermodel Karlie Kloss
choosing to embolden her name not through a fashion line but with
cookies made in a collaboration with Momofuku Milk Bar owner and chef
Christina Tosi. Before one makes snide remarks of the weary stereotype
of fashion people not eating, they certainly do. Jean
Touitou of A.P.C
and Azzedine Alaïa are renowned for their prowess in the kitchen, and
fashion weeks are as much about the hottest places to eat as they are
about the shows themselves. It is increasingly apparent that far from a
brief flirtation, this is a relationship of lasting romance rooted in
history and passion.
One of the most interesting aspects is how food and fashion influence
and percolate through society in similar ways. Think of fashion’s
recent predilection for using neoprene and scuba materials as analogous
to the food industry’s obsession with nitrogen – it’s all about the
latest in fashion and food technology, respectively. Lee Tran Lam, who
writes one of Australia’s popular food blogs, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry,
compares the influence of trends in the food industry as similar to
those of the catwalk; the worldwide effect of cronuts (for the
uninitiated, dare to Google it – it’s a cross between a doughnut and a
croissant) is not unlike Balenciaga’s ruffles filtering down to the high
street. “Food, like fashion, is driven by trends, seasonality and the
occasional gust of hype,” says Lam. When Dominique Ansel’s bakery in New
York opens each morning there is already a line of customers ready to
snap up its $5 cronuts, spurring on copycats and a black market of
cronuts where they can cost as much as $40 each. “It’s led to worldwide
interpretation,” says Lam. “In Australia now, there’s Adriano Zumbo’s
zonut.” And if the macaron trend is anything to go by (it enjoyed a
flurry of popularity that peaked with the launch of Ladurée, before
McDonald’s started making them), by the time this story goes to print
cronuts may soon be coming to a fast-food outlet near you.
“When you are obsessed and intrigued by beauty and craftsmanship in
fashion, I think it’s a natural extension to be obsessed with amazing
food,” says Caroline Issa, executive fashion director of Tank
magazine. Elettra Wiedemann compares the allure of a handcrafted Birkin
bag with that of a locally sourced, organically grown tomato. “Both tell
a story, were a labour of love and connect the consumer to an artisan
and tradition,” says Wiedemann. “That’s what has gripped the imagination
of many people in fashion.” As a model and activist with a focus on
food, health and sustainability, Wiedemann has become something of a
poster-woman for a modern approach to fashion and food. The daughter of
Isabella Rossellini, she is ensconced in the world of fashion (her
friend, designer Giambattista Valli, played matchmaker by introducing
Wiedemann to her now husband) and she also hosts US Vogue’s
Elettra’s Goodness, a show on YouTube where she cooks with guests such
as Grace Coddington and Blake Lively (who herself is at ease talking
about her love for Christian Louboutin heels as her new La Cornue
kitchen). YouTube, in fact, has become a platform for models looking to
exert their flair for food; there is also Jourdan Dunn, who cooks family
favourites and enlists fellow model Cara Delevingne as an occasional
sous chef.
There is a level of luxury and diligence that is required in pursuing
fine food. It has in effect become a relatively affordable status
symbol. A Hermès Birkin costs thousands, but a seven-course degustation
with matching wines at El Celler de Can Roca, the top restaurant on
Restaurant magazine’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2013 list, in Girona,
Spain, will set you back about $250. While fashion retailing has
softened, food retailing is on the rise. Think of it as the “lipstick
effect” (and, at worst, accessible hedonism) – in hard times, luxury
shopping does not completely disappear but it morphs into something
else; a consumer deems it more cost-effective to spoil themselves with a
bar of gourmet chocolate than splashing out on a new dress.
Then there is the limited-edition, must-be-the-first-to-have-it
appeal. Renowned restaurant El Bulli (which closed in 2011) had a
waiting list believed to be longer than the one for Chanel’s sold-out
espadrilles. The food industry is constantly evolving with new cooking
stars, hot restaurants and must-try dishes being named daily, and
achieving these checkpoints shows off one’s amateur gourmand status. “I
think the fact that they’re both fields that push people to experiment
and be inventive leads to lots of new ideas bubbling over and gaining
attention,” says Lam. For Jenny Capano, quitting her job at 3.1 Phillip
Lim in New York with her friend Tara Gilson (also of 3.1 Phillip Lim) to
relocate to Paris and start The Sporting Project,
a food and fashion consulting firm, was a clear choice. “The funny
thing is that when I worked in fashion I always felt that if you weren’t
talking about the shows, you were talking about where you were going to
eat for dinner and what’s the new restaurant.” Capano and Gilson join a
gilded league of former fashion industry members who work in food, such
as Adam Rapoport, who went from style editor at GQ to editor-in-chief at Bon Appétit, former fashion model Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson, who, before becoming a celebrity cook, was a food writer for British Vogue.
It is no coincidence that Paris is the capital of both food and
fashion. King Louis XIV set out to make Paris the arbiter of taste and
style, giving rise to celebrity chefs and courtiers as part of his
mercantilist approach of economic and political policy under the advice
of his controller general of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, long before
Marie-Antoinette (in)famously became a trendsetter in her own right.
Louis XIV saw that becoming a leader in food and fashion was a “soft
power” and encouraged tourism and increased exports.
But with increasing homogeneity thanks to globalisation and the
influx of fast retailing making the street style of Shanghai not much
different to that of Sydney or Stockholm, food is perhaps becoming one
of the last few differentiating symbols. It is personal and creative
expression at its most basic – flats or heels, cupcakes or ice-cream,
leather or lace, poached or fried? Food, like fashion, has its tribes,
but its lower price makes it easier to try new experiences.
Everyone has their two cents to contribute about their most memorable
meal or where to purchase the best pair of jeans. Food and fashion are a
daily means of self-expression – yes, there’s as much weight in
crafting one’s own image when choosing Céline’s minimalist chic as to
opting for a green smoothie with kale, futuristic Christopher Kane to
tacos from a food truck. Savvy celebrities can use this to their
advantage as well. It adds to Blake Lively’s golden girl persona that
she can simultaneously shimmy on the red carpet in an embellished
Marchesa gown while enthusiastically espousing what she learnt in a
private class at New York’s Per Se restaurant, and increases Karlie
Kloss’s small-town-girl charm when you read that her favourite hobby is
baking. (Or for others, it can be polarising – take, for example,
Gwyneth Paltrow and her vegetarianism.) “You need to get dressed once
you tumble out of bed and you need to think about all the mealtimes that
will get you through the day,” says Lam. “It doesn’t matter if you live
in the metropolis or the Amazon, everyone is eating and everyone has
traditions linked to food,” says Wiedemann. “Food provides a glimpse of
our culture and lifestyle.”
Naturally, the overall growth and fascination with food is a
contributing factor; think MasterChef, David Chang (of Momofuku) and his
Twitter account, new international food titles which borrow fashion’s
cool-stylised aesthetic (Kinfolk, Gather and Cereal)
and the popularity of the brunch meeting. Patterns in socialising are
also in the mix; social activities, particularly with women, are now
planned around coffee or a meal rather than, say, shopping in a
bricks-and-mortar store. This explains our love for a long, weekend
brunch (and those queues), which will surely be caught on fashion’s
favourite social media platform of Instagram. Someone like Natalie
Massenet of Net-A-Porter is just as likely to Instagram an image of her
pasta dish or the Malteser cake she made as her latest fashion purchase.
On Vogue Australia’s Instagram account, images of fanciful
desserts are as popular as the new season’s fashion. “There seems to be
more interest now, perhaps because we’re able to see what’s appearing
on dinner tables around the world or inside acclaimed restaurants thanks
to food blogs, Instagram and other social media,” says Lam. “Especially
given how the never-ending social media cycle has trained us all to
pounce on the next cool thing and retweet, repin and share.”
Some have argued that women’s fascination with food is regressive and
anti-feminist. Aren’t we undoing the work of feminism if we’re suddenly
revelling in the art of jam-making while eyeing off the latest
Charlotte Olympia heels? This is answered by what writer Peggy Orenstein
refers to in a 2010 article in the New York Times as the
femivore movement – an “unexpected out from the feminist predicament, a
way for women to embrace homemaking without becoming Betty Draper”.
Rather than seeing this as a backwards step, the femivore movement is
about reclaiming previously gendered arenas like food and domesticity
because, after all, women have historically been in charge of feeding
the family. It also draws attention to women’s role in creating and
consuming food as more than just fuel, but also as part of a lifestyle
choice and for enjoyment, too.
“The timing just seemed right,” says Kerry Diamond of the decision
with co-founder Claudia Wu to launch the fashion and food magazine Cherry Bombe,
which reached its funding target on crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter
ahead of deadline. Kloss appears on the cover of the launch issue, which
features other fashion foodies such as Garance Doré and Sofia Coppola.
“We didn’t expect the reaction and, obviously, this is something that
women are hungry for in multiple ways.” “Food is coming into
its own as an art form,” agrees Wu. “People are elevating food from
just sustenance to something with style.” Between Wu and Diamond, their
CVs name-check Lancôme, WWD and independent fashion magazine Me.
The merging of food and fashion results in mutual
lifestyle-ification. The store Merci, which is in a mansion in the
Marais district in Paris, stocks a range of designers alongside three
different cafes, and London’s Dover Street Market is a retail must not
just for its extensive Comme des Garçons products but for the Rose
Bakery upstairs. Evolution has forced fashion brands to enhance their
competitive edge by exploring lifestyle components, like Hermès
including a cafe in its Saint-Germain-des-Prés store. “Fashion gains
inspiration from everywhere,” says Capano. “It’s not really just about
fashion, it’s about a lifestyle.”
There are the big-name fashion and food collaborations that make
headlines – Alber Elbaz for Ladurée and Armani chocolate – but what is
most enlightening is the philosophy of extending your taste beyond what
you wear, to other areas in your life. “It’s nice to inspire the whole
act of nourishing, and in all its forms,” says Diamond. “Nourishing the
stomach, the brain, the eye and each other.” The one thing that can be
relied upon, despite the ebb and flow of trends in food and fashion, is
the enjoyment that comes from living a stylish life to its fullest, from
what you put in your stomach to what you put on your back. As Yves
Saint Laurent once said: “All elements of life follow a certain style.”
Yet there’s one thing that never goes out of fashion, and that’s good
food.
This article appeared in the September 2013 issue of Vogue Australia.
