Food and Fashion
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Edited by Melissa Marra-Alvarez & Elizabeth Way, Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Food & Fashion accompanies the exhibition of the same name that opens at The Museum at FIT, New York, in September. The show will explore how food culture has influenced and impacted the consumption, production and perception of fashion. The book’s editors’ Melissa Marra-Alvarez and Elizabeth Way bring together scholars whose writing delves further into the relationship between food and fashion.
Valerie Steele, Director of The Museum at FIT, astutely notes in her foreword that “food and clothing are basic needs that can be raised to the heights of luxury and artistry.” This makes them interesting cultural phenomena as evidence of broader ideologies, cultures and lifestyles. To explore this, the book is divided into four sections, each featuring writings which discuss the intersection of food and fashion from different perspectives.
“Food Meets Fashion: Contemporary and Historical Views,” explores moments when Western fashion has been shaped by food culture, creating a zeitgeist that has influenced both mediums. Taste is demonstrated to be a driver of conspicuous consumption in both fashion and food, from the 17th century to the present. What someone eats and wears are indicators of class. In recent years we have seen high fashion brands playing with this idea by featuring commercialised fast food logos on their clothes. In the section “Activism: Nature, Labor, and the Body,” scholars delve into the politics behind food and fashion.
As two of the world’s largest industries, the often detrimental repercussions of their outputs on the world’s finite resources and people are discussed. The authors, however, also highlight some of the efforts to instill positive change within both indistries. Section three, “Cultural Representation,” considers themes that fashion designers have used to represent their own cultural identity. The countries discussed include the African Diaspora, Japan, China, Italy, and Mexico. These chapters demonstrate how fashion and food are often used as forms of cultural expression.
“Art and Visual Culture” examines visual mediums where fashion and food have come together. This has happened since the 16th century. For example, Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of Lucina Brembati, c.1518–23, features a toothpick necklace. The crossovers between food, fashion and art persist in contemporary fashion photography and on social media.
With beautiful illustrations throughout, Food & Fashion reveals the breadth of conversations that arise when considering these industries in tandem. The book raises interesting ideas about the cultural markers, with roots in commercialism and artistic expression, provoking readers to think about food and fashion from new perspectives.
••• Fiona Ibbetson