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Summer isn't complete without a trip to the farmers market, where stands are overflowing with juicy peaches, plump heirloom tomatoes, and ripe melons. And neither is the fashion world these days. This season clothing brands and influencers alike have been drawing inspiration from market trips and picnics to usher in the next style trend: the grocery-girl aesthetic.
Food has inspired everything in the beauty world as of late, from latte makeup and donut skin to fruit-forward nails. It was only a matter of time before this obsession with our groceries showed up in our closets too. Watermelon purses, tapas tanks, and Aperol-spritz dresses have become hot items this summer, while tomato girl's European travel vibes and lemon girl's summertime energy have taken over TikTok. It feels like every cool brand is encouraging us to wear our girl dinners on our sleeve, literally.
For some, the joy of food-print clothing is having a more direct way of representing their personality. After all, a specific item, like an egg or a martini, says a lot more about your personal tastes than florals, plaids, or even a leopard print.
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“I do think fruit is more popular than florals because it's more dynamic,” fashion stylist Shea Daspin tells Glamour. “You get the pattern of an orange from the outside, and if you cut it open, there is a whole different pattern on the inside. That is really useful in design because you get more options.”
Food is also more gender neutral than flowers or animal print, giving it broader appeal, says fashion stylist and content creator Audree Kate López. “It could be for anybody and any age or any gender,” she says. “It doesn't really define you based on where you're at, how much money you have, or what you look like.”
Of course, the intersection of food and fashion isn't new. Designers in the past have used food-inspired clothing not just as a playful element of design but also as a way to explore cultural identity, reframe racial stereotypes, or reflect history. But why is everyone craving food fashion so much now? The pandemic has a lot to do with it, the experts we interviewed said. Confined to their homes, people turned to food as they attended virtual wine tastings and experimented with fermentation and sourdough bread. Cooking transformed from a pesky to-do to a true hobby for a whole new group of people. Now, as people travel again and dine out in a postpandemic world, they're carrying on this intimate relationship with food and drinks through dopamine dressing.
“It's another way to play on the five senses,” Daspin says. “Food evokes taste, literally and figuratively.”
And there's no place where people can flaunt that taste—both for food and style—more than social media. The recent food-centric pieces on the runway likely influenced the popularity of the grocery-girl aesthetic across fast-fashion and ready-to-wear collections, but platforms like TikTok and Instagram have also shifted power toward consumers.
“I really think trends are coming from the streets and going to high fashion—it's not trickling down anymore,” Daspin says, citing the pandemic as the turning point. “When fashion seasons came back, really what high-fashion brands got inspired by was user-generated content on the internet. They could look at Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest and see what people were wearing on the streets and getting photographed in.”
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And in the case of the grocery girl, social media influencers have been starting a lot of the food trends that end up on everything from caps to clutches, according to Jodi Lawrence, social media manager at Lodge Cast Iron. “Food influencers are eating mortadella, so now we're all eating mortadella,” she says. “Now there are mortadella [tees], which is crazy because that's lunch meat. It's the chic-ification of foods that to some people have always been so regular.”
With the growth of celebrity cooking shows like Selena + Chef and Cooking With Flo, the popularity of food media personalities like Molly Baz and Claire Saffitz, and the renewed interest in restaurant culture (à la The Bear and The Menu), the food industry has also carved out a bigger spot in pop culture than ever before. To be in on the food scene is to be a part of a cool-kids club—dirty martini in one hand and tinned fish in the other.
“Food as entertainment has really changed the landscape of food culture and the way that we all speak about food,” Lawrence says. “Now people are going to more experiential restaurants, like a Michelin-star-type experience, where the conversation is driven by what you're eating.”
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Social media amplifies these experiences, creating food FOMO when you see someone in your feed hitting up the coolest spot in town or showing off their sexy dinner-party spread. In this way, food has not only the fashion element of color and style but also cachet—all while managing to remain accessible. Grocery-girl aesthetic is evidence that brands recognize this too, signaling a shift in the industry's perspective on the role of food in fashion, according to Daspin.
“Sometimes fashion takes itself very seriously,” she says. In most recent years, mainstream brands largely limited their appetite to fruit prints or food accessories. “But, postpandemic, everything's been getting a bit lighter, a bit more fun.”
That means that this summer and fall it's all about serving your personal flavor. Shop these food-inspired outfits and accessories to bring out your inner grocery girl this season.
Kris Martins is a journalist based in Washington, DC.
