Stylist

FASHION FOWARD

Food and fashion naturally go hand-in-hand. After all, both are creative industries. Both concentrate on the human body. Both emphasize personal expression. And both draw inspiration from both exotic and everyday materials. There has been a great movement in pairing the two fields together and it has been ramping up quite quickly.

Zoe Latta, one half of Eckhaus Latta, throws dinner parties as avant-garde as her designs in her Los Angeles home. Raf Simons has thrown feasts in New York for his collections, with goblets of wine, fresh fruit and charcuterie. He even had Belgian chocolates and waffles up for grabs on the runway itself. Chromat’s edible bikini debuted at Miami Swim Week made from seaweed and was all the rave. And Tbilisi-based George Keburia designed millinery in the form of Crayola box-colored chefs hats.

Fashion as it engages with food is fun. It makes presentations less stuffy. Many designers today are engaging with food as a point of inspiration in ways that touch upon identity politics, climate change and waste created in the production of consumer goods. Here are a few to keep your eye on... The streetwear-inspired garments by Zeynab Izadyar of Vvork Vvork Vvork are all handmade in Brooklyn with graphics inspired by Persian food packaging. Most often rice and tea bags. Her interest in working with food in design came from cooking techniques she learned growing up in Iran. The line employs colors with significance; the green used throughout is a sacred color in the Muslim world. It also highlights the traditions of Iranian food while reimagining them into new fashion.

Although Los Angeles-based Leeann Huang is making garments that are more conceptual than wearable in the long term, her edible garments are some of the most exciting elements of the fashion world right now. Although Huang, who cut her teeth working at Maison Margiela, does not have formal experience working in food, she grew up thinking she wanted to be a chef.

Sandy Liang grew up at Congee Village, a New York restaurant owned by her father. Her namesake line, which launched in 2014, is mostly known for its faux-fur coats and street-style-worthy fleece jackets, but food is found in Liang’s motifs of mangosteens and guavas throughout her collections. She’s held presentations during New York Fashion Week at her father’s Cantonese-style restaurant, as well as the notorious Mission Chinese Food. In 2018, Liang commissioned food artist Jen Monroe, known in New York for her monochromatic dinner parties, to create a totally blue, edible tablescape for her fall show.

Mediterranean jewelry brand Keef Palas details their pieces with dried peppers, peanuts, walnuts, olives, garlic and more. Founded by Claire O’Keefe and Eugenia Oliva in the summer of 2016, the duo live between Mallorca and Barcelona. Their collection directly reflects local Mediterranean ingredients. Keef Palas doesn’t keep a back stock of its product, rather producing to order like at a restaurant. Earrings are vacuum-packed and kept in a refrigerator until they’re ready to be sent. The emphasis here is enjoying the pieces (like life) while you can…