Hailey Bieber took to her Instagram earlier this month to launch her collaboration with FILA. She posted two editorial pictures, one of which featured her spilling a bag full of fresh produce, something that is becoming increasingly inaccessible.
It’s hard to reconcile the fact that food — quite literally the bottom of the hierarchy of needs — would become political. The prices of basic pantry and fridge essentials, such as eggs, are being jacked up to record highs.
However, it seems that fashion elites and the upper class remain blissfully unaware of the struggle and politics behind fresh produce.
This spring’s high fashion campaigns aren’t going for the usual florals — they’re going for greenery. The French fashion brand, Longchamp, launched their “nature-centric” spring collection with photos of handbags perched atop a basket of apples and models dressed as farmers.
Kim Kardashian was seen carrying what looked like an Erewhon grocery bag everywhere, but it was actually a $2,700 Balenciaga bag in collaboration with the high end grocery chain.
High fashion is alluring because its products, lifestyle and ideology are hard to grasp for someone living on an average salary. High fashion is meant to be aspirational — some people’s financial goals may even revolve around finally getting their hands on one of these designer products.
It’s a bad sign for those living an average lifestyle that high fashion has incorporated food into their marketing.
Food has become an aspirational item.
The shift around the use of food in fashion and lifestyle content also ties to the new “quiet luxury” era, which emphasizes effortless elegance and timelessness over anything flashy and considered “loud luxury.”
The quiet luxury movement emphasizes homegrown or organic food. On TikTok, videos that feature influencers shopping at Whole Foods and ever-coveted Erewhon hauls rake up thousands of views.
Grocery hauls were once reserved for chefs sharing recipes or fitness influencers showing how they cut for lifting — now the everyday influencer is unpacking their groceries like a new pair of Gucci shoes.
Often, it’s the working class who are targeted for their “cheap” diets of processed and fast food. Working moms on TikTok will make frozen chicken nuggets for their children, and comments will explode and mock their grocery choices,calling them “unhealthy.” .
The story isn’t that the mother is purposefully feeding her children frozen and packaged food — this food is likely more affordable and less time-consuming than buying a heap of groceries for a family of five and making a home cooked meal every day.
The money to access an abundance of quality food and the time and energy to prepare the ingredients for a meal is sparse when you look at how much the average American works and earns.
According to Clockify, the average American makes an average $1,139 each working week, equaling about 1,976 hours a year and an annual income of $59,228.
When you take time out for getting ready for and commuting to and from work, and account for the money needed for other necessities, such as rent and savings, you don’t end up with much time and money to truly inspect the quality and quantity of your grocery products.
High fashion is a top trend forecaster — the industry is well aware that the use of groceries and produce in their campaigns is signifying the inaccessibility of these products in an average household.
Food has become political and aspirational, and the healthy hauls online and shiny bags in stores are only rubbing the detriment in the faces of the working and middle classes.
