For many of us, food turned into a great comfort during this pandemic: as most places shut down, the trip to our local food shops or supermarkets felt like a thrilling moment, a unique experience during which you could meet your fellow human beings and get distracted from the lockdown. Besides, many of us rediscovered the pleasures of cooking and started being more experimental with different ingredients.
In a way also fashion got into the food trend, but no, we're not referring to the collaborations between food/beverage companies and brands/fashion houses to develop a product like a limited-edition garment or accessory. In the last two years we actually got quite a few of these experiments, with limited-edition sneakers such as Adidas x AriZona Iced Tea Collection or Nike x Ben & Jerry's ice cream; this year Jason Wu's also featured in his A/W 21 collection designs inspired by its sponsor, Coca-Cola while Telfar designed staff uniforms for the 100th anniversary of America's oldest fast food chain, White Castle (a collaboration that started in 2015 actually when the hamburger chain sponsored the brand's fashion show during New York Fashion Week and continued in 2017 when Telfar designed a uniform collection for the family-owned company and a limited-edition capsule).
The fashion and food trend we are referring to is actually the reverse, that is a food product inspired by a fashion brand or a trendy celebrity. As fashion runways moved to the digital realm, a few fashion influencers reinvented themselves and, from dressing in fluffy merengue-like frocks, they moved onto mixing (sponsored) ingredients to make an actual merengue. Well, you know what they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but, we guess a lemon tart is equally nice after all.
We all have to eat, so for some influencers it seemed logical to move onto the sponsored meal and the ingredient collab. And so last year after doing her duty launching a crowdfunding to collect money for the Coronavirus emergency in Milan, Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni relapsed into advertising mode. Last year she collaborated with Oreo on a limited-edition sandwich crème biscuit (even though that specific collaboration was released in March 2020, at the beginning of last year's lockdown in Italy, so, ever the trend-setter, Ferragni had embarked in a food collab even before lockdown; but it's worth remembering that she had tried entering the food and beverage industry already in 2018 with her partnership with Evian water), then she refocused on food companies such as Galbani, posting images of her cooking with their dairy products, and AIA Food, reviewing their breaded chicken fillet. This year she added an Easter chocolate egg to the food collabs (the proceeds from the sale went to an Italian charity).
In January Oreo released its Lady Gaga cookies, a triumph of colouring agents: being inspired by her album "Chromatica", the cookies were pink-hued with green coloured creme and three Chromatica-inspired embossments on the outside.
But Oreo had to revert to the plain vanilla filling for the Lady Gaga cookie sold on the European market (this usually happens when some ingredients are banned in some countries or when there may be copyright issues and a product must therefore be readapted to be sold in that specific country).
Despite being auctioned also on eBay, Lady Gaga's Oreo cookies didn't generate the frenzy caused by the red Supreme Oreo: hitting the market last year in February, the Oreos designed by streetwear cult brand Supreme as part of its Spring/Summer 2020 collection, went quickly sold out, reappearing on eBay where a three-pack of the vivid red cookies (price: $8 per pack) were almost sold for over $92,000 (the auction was taken offline before the cookies were sold).
In Italy it is not rare to find food products developed in collaboration with luxury fashion houses: for a few years now Dolce & Gabbana collaborated with cake and sweets family company Fiasconaro, for their traditional "panettone" and "colomba", Italian Christmas and Easter cakes wrapped in boxes with Sicily-inspired prints and motifs, but the design duo also sells wine in collaboration with winemaker Donnafugata.
Prada and Louis Vuitton never collaborated on food products, but they both preferred to buy two historical Milanese pastry shops and cafes. After all, why producing a panettone at Christmas time when you can have the entire pastry shop? So the LVMH Group bought Cova in 2013 and a year later the Prada Group bought Marchesi 1824.
The latest food collab was announced yesterday on Twitter: McDonald's revealed indeed that it will be dropping in May a meal in collaboration with Grammy-nominated K-Pop band BTS. The new BTS Meal designed according to the band's preferences consists of 10 chicken McNuggets, medium fries, a medium drink, and sweet chili and Cajun dipping sauces, inspired by popular recipes available at McDonald's South Korea.
Scheduled to be released in the USA on May 26th and in South Korea on May 27th (but the meal will be available in nearly 50 countries across six continents; dates vary) this collaboration is part of McDonald’s celebrity signature menu program. So in this case we don't actually have a fashionable brand, but a very trendy pop band collaborating with a fast food chain on a celebrity-inspired meal.
This is not the first time McDonald's partners with celebrities: last year it launched meals with musicians Travis Scott and J Balvin. And, while Travis Scott made over $20 million with his partnership, you can bet that this new collaboration will go stellar considering that the BTS army boasts millions of cadets all over the world.
But if you're too stylish to step into a McDonald's and you're a vegetarian, you may have to head to Moscow. Yes, because that's where you will find the Vêtements vegetarian combo meal, available from the café of concept store KM20.
In this case the vegetarian burger (the same burger sold at the shop cafe, a favourite with the brand's co-founder and CEO Guram Gvasalia, with portobello mushrooms and cheese added) comes with fries and a lemonade and the packaging is covered with Vêtements' logo. Obviously the meal comes in a limited edition (there are just 2,000 available).
While we can't really vouch for the taste of this burger, its Instagrammable status is ensured by the posts of KM20 owner Olga Karput obviously dressed from head to toe in Vêtements trying the meal on the café's terrace.
Will this first food experiment lead to more food collabs for the brand that staged a runway show during Paris Fashion Week at the McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées in 2019. Time will tell.
But, do you actually prefer art to fashion, so you're not impressed with these stories of fashion brands and trendy celebrities collaborating with food companies? Well, then head to the shop at London's Design Museum that has been turned into a temporary (it will be open for just five days) supermarket selling essential products including tea, coffee, bread, pasta sauce, porridge oats and washing up liquid with an arty twist thanks to the package designed by emerging artists.
The lead artist for this project is Camille Walala who designed the temporary shop; but among the products you will be able to find a kidney beans tin designed by Kentara Okwara, a toilet roll by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, a rice box by Joey Yu and a special edition of Bombay Sapphire (the shop's sponsor) by Ruff Mercy. It is worth noting that none of these products are overpriced, but they are sold at the same prices you would find them in a supermarket (the price for the kidney beans tin is just 70 pence).
Due to Coronavirus, England's museums and galleries will still be closed until 17th May, but their shops can open. The museum saw a 92% drop in income because of the pandemic, so reopening its shop as a supermarket selling essential products is a way to remind us that creativity and art are also "essential", but it is also a strategic move to help the museum and artists as the proceeds will go to the museum's new Emerging Designer Access Fund that gives to up-and-coming artists and designers free access to the museum's exhibitions, events and talks.
Some of these collaborations are destined to be successful as they allow you to join in a trend, support your favourite celebrity or influencer and achieve fashionable status without going bankrupt and you can bet that we will see more fashionable foods in future. The pandemic has indeed taught us that food is an essential category, so producing more fashionably branded foods or customising menus can guarantee sales to fashion brands even in difficult times.
That said, remember, the old adage says that you are what you eat, but don't delude yourself: you won't become a style icon, a celebrity or an artist by joining the stylish branded food trend. At the end of the day this is just a clever marketing exercise.
In our times of crisis and confusion with many people who have lost their jobs because of Coronavirus and who are struggling to get by, the most important point is not eating in an impossibly stylish and arty way, but just being able to buy basic food for everyday ordinary meals.
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