Whenever I think of the relationship between food and fashion, I think of the scene from Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) in which Alette Naylor, editor of the eponymous magazine Alette, acquiesces to being served cake by Rebecca’s mum. When a small piece is cut, Alette screams “Tiny!” until the piece in her plate has been reduced to a crumb of cake. She smiles happily as she looks at the speck on her plate. It’s a short scene in a gorgeous movie but it’s very telling of how food has always been demonised. Less than two decades ago, in 2009, Kate Moss said her infamous mantra: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
Not only has Moss since distanced herself from that controversial catchphrase but the fashion industry itself has undergone a long overdue transformation over the past few decades. Once favouring a stark, almost anti-food aesthetic—particularly during the ’90s heroin chic era—fashion is now happily commingling with food. From the rise of immersive…