Elizabeth Goodspeed on our current obsession with food in advertising and fashion

It’s not for nothing that this increase in edible matter coincides with a heightened focus on thinness unseen since the Y2K-era (congrats to Ozempic shareholders everywhere). This focus on dramatic weight loss, often enabled by expensive methods such as off-label GLP-1 agonist usage, personal trainers, and surgical procedures not covered by insurance, tends to be most popular within affluent circles. Conversely, while obesity can affect anyone (despite what advertisers want you to think, weight is largely genetic), in the US it’s more prevalent in low-income households. When it comes to societal perceptions of luxury and health, it seems you can benefit from an association with food, so long as you embody a form of beauty that ironically distances itself from the act of eating. Moreover, the limited sizing options provided by luxury brands already exclude a significant portion of the population, reinforcing exclusivity based on body size; you can buy a shirt that has spaghetti on it, but they only sell sizes 0 through 8. After all this time, we’re back to desiring food instead of eating it.

Of course, even after the Loewe tomato spoils, another food will simply take its place. Today’s Tomato Girl is yesterday’s Coconut Girl, after all. As these food microtrends multiply, they become even more fleeting. In the meantime, we may as well look to the Dutch masters and hang an oil painting of Taco Bell in our kitchen. Eat your heart out, Andy Warhol.