For their Fall 2026 collection, Italian-brand Moschino sent a purse that looks like a bag of churros down the runway. These types of ideas are not new to the brand, they sent a McDonald’s themed bag down the runway in 2014. However, this highlights a larger trend that is taking over the fashion world: the luxury of food.
The current inflation rate is 2.4% as of February 2026, and is currently at its lowest since May 2025. However, that does not mean that groceries are not expensive. The average person, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spends about $429 on groceries every month, and that number continues to fluctuate as different ingredients are at different degrees of availability.
Simply put: A person living alone should not spend that much money on getting groceries every month, it adds up to $5,148 a year.
As the prices get higher, food starts to become a luxury, and using that food for wasteful purposes becomes a status symbol.
Last year, Hailey Bieber starred in a campaign with FILA for a capsule collection the two created. The photoshoot fits well for both the brand and Bieber’s personal style, however two images caught attention. In one shot, she is distracted and spills an iced coffee cup on the ground, and she trips and spills a large paper bag of fresh produce.
Initially the campaign sparked controversy because it seemed like Bieber’s husband, Justin Bieber, does not help her in taking care of their child. However, Bieber is actively wasting food in the shoot. Whether or not the food in the campaign is real, Bieber is sending the message that food is a luxury for her and she can afford to drop one bag of produce because she can always get more.
Food and fashion have always been linked together. In 2023, everyone decided to push tomato prints, calling it “tomato girl summer.” The trend did not even last through the entire summer and was recently replaced by “sardine girl summer,” in 2025.
While food is slowly becoming a luxury, one that someone can just waste for a campaign, the ideal body has not been skinnier. Just like other fashion trends, a woman’s body type is something that can also come and go. In the early 2000’s, having curves was something to hide, while the 2010s decade saw the reverse become true. Now, the pendulum has swung yet again, highlighting what can only be called “heroin chic,” a time period in which thin, skinny bodies are to be idealed by women.
Now, women are expected to fit the mold of a thin body, just a few years after the body positivity movement waved through the general public, and even the various fashion weeks. All while following the latest beauty trend of the month, which usually is labeled after some type of food.
With a simple scroll on TikTok, women can find many different makeup looks to aspire to, like “blueberry milk nails,” “latte makeup,” “glazed donut skin,” and many others.
Food is no longer something that people can enjoy, but something to use as a trinket or aspire to look like. While most of the country cannot afford to buy their groceries every month, influencers on social media use their power to force the same people to want to look like that same food. It can seem like a fun trend at first, but it highlights a deeper, more sinister, trend at play.
Olivia Russo, a senior journalism major, is editor-in-chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached at olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
