Couture à la Carte
Whether on the runway, in glossy campaigns, or on the streets outside Palais de Tokyo, one thing is unmistakable: fashion’s hunger is at an all-time high. This isn’t about models dieting—it's about the designs. Croissants become earrings, lobsters morph into handbags, and cherries hang like edible gems from collars and cuffs. Across Spring 2025, food moves beyond playful embellishment to become a defining symbol—one that speaks less to literal appetite and more to themes of power, extravagance, and the fragile undercurrents beneath luxury’s surface.
Louis Vuitton's viral lobster minaudière from Spring 2025 set the tone: a crystal-encrusted crustacean clutched by front-row fixtures, resurrecting Elsa Schiaparelli’s surrealist seafood nearly a century later — except this time, the lobster doesn’t crawl quietly. It’s oversized, hyper-luxurious, and dropped into a world teetering on economic uncertainty. The subtext? Decadence is always louder when instability simmers beneath the surface.
The edible motifs didn’t stop there. Jacquemus’ "La Casa" presentation in Capri served up models traipsing down Italian staircases with literal baguettes tucked under their arms: a tongue-in-cheek flex disguised as simplicity. The show, dripping in lemon groves and Aperol-soaked nostalgia, masked a sharper cultural tension: romanticized consumption for the few, aestheticized scarcity for the many.
Over at Puppets & Puppets, the New York label doubled down on its signature cookie bags: this time, rendered in updated silhouettes, their hyper-recognizable chocolate chip motif functioning less like a snack, more like an ironic logo. In an industry still drenched in "quiet luxury," edible absurdity is the new status symbol. Who needs a logo-mania tote when you can carry baked goods repurposed as high fashion?
Cherries dominated 2025’s accessory circuit, swinging from the ears of Simone Rocha’s models and appearing in still-life-inspired jewelry from independent labels on both sides of the Atlantic. The fruit, delicate, overripe, always on the edge of decay, isn’t just nostalgic; it’s subversive. It frames consumption as delicate, fleeting, performative. Even Loewe, never one to shy from surrealism, returned to food motifs this year, teasing egg-inspired elements in its Resort previews, a wink to Jonathan Anderson’s ongoing obsession with edible fragility.
It’s tempting to write this off as playful escapism, but fashion’s appetite for food symbolism always spikes at moments like this. Global markets show cracks. Luxury sales plateau in the U.S., the Chinese consumer rebound underdelivers, and inflation shapes spending behaviors even at the high end. And suddenly, edible iconography floods the runway — not out of coincidence, but out of history repeating itself.
In the 1930s, it was lettuce leaves and lobsters for a Europe on the brink. In the 2008 downturn, Moschino turned Happy Meals into handbags. Now, as 2025 unfolds with cultural volatility and economic nerves, baguettes, fruit, and confectionery emerge as fashion’s favorite Trojan horses: sweet, seductive, ridiculous — and undeniably loaded.
When food becomes fashion, it’s never just whimsy: it’s a calculated symbol of scarcity and status. In 2025, as the price of everyday staples like bread and lobster climbs, these edible motifs become more than indulgent play—they’re a flex, a satire, and a commentary on who gets to indulge, who aestheticizes hunger, and who’s left with crumbs. Designers wield food as a metaphor for shifting boundaries of luxury: what was once common sustenance is now aspirational, even unattainable. Wrapped in cellophane gloss and runway polish, oversized baguettes and crystal-studded lobsters seduce with humor, while exposing deeper cravings for stability, status, and control.
So as you watch influencers dangle croissants from their lobes, or editors tote lobsters down Avenue Montaigne, know this: It’s not just a trend. It’s fashion’s most decadent coping mechanism. Right now, the industry’s hunger is louder than ever.
Bon appétit.
XOXO, The Fashion Stock Market
