Why Emily Blunt’s turnip dress is part of a fashion tradition

Editor’s Note: Look of the Week is a regular series taking a look at the good, the bad and the ugly, highlighting the most talked-about outfits of the past seven days.

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Turnips, radishes, potatoes… These are not the beginning of Emily Blunt’s shopping list, but rather the products that were present in her latest red carpet look. Attending the Paris premiere of Fall Guy, in which she stars, Blunt looked at the picture of health—literally—in a Loewe Fall/Winter 2024 shirt and balloon pants studded with root vegetables.

And while radishes are rarely seen on the red carpet, lately fashion has been making sure we get our greens. In 2022, Danish brand Ganni launched a “pop-up grow market” to celebrate its collaboration with Levi’s on naturally dyed denim; where shoppers could view fresh beets next to a mineral-dyed maxi dress in the same shade. For spring/summer 2020, New York label Collina Strada not only printed tomatoes on pants, but also replicated an entire farmer’s market stall for its New York Fashion Week runway, with participants encouraged to take donated products home after the runway. Loewe creative director Jonathon Anderson didn’t stop with Blunt’s potato-splattered two-piece. The collection, which debuted in March, also featured a hand-embroidered handbag in the shape of a bunch of asparagus.

Is this yet another fast-fading microtrend, perhaps a “greengrocer girl’s autumn” as Guardian fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley wrote last October? Or is the recent surge in popularity of artichoke clothing part of a long-standing fashion tradition? And should we, as one nutrition scientist argues on TikTok, view these turnips more as tea leaves with a message about the future of climate change and global food security?

As prices rise around the world, food – especially fresh and out-of-season fruits and vegetables – is becoming a luxury for many. One in six people in the U.S. turned to food banks in 2021, according to a 2022 report from food bank network Feeding America. Like pineapples in the 17th century, foods are beginning to embody certain aspirations. While eleven influencers filmed themselves delivering clothes, many are now also recording themselves unpacking items at the grocery store—sometimes racking up millions of views on TikTok. One academic who studies food insecurity at Northwestern University used the app and drew parallels between the crisis and fashion’s penchant for food-themed outfits. “This season, luxury fashion houses are incorporating more and more food/product related items because food is a luxury category,” wrote master’s student @kfesteryga.

And while we may be seeing more food-themed fashion on runways and in retail stores, the reality is that edible designs are far from new. In fact, Hubert de Givenchy was one of the first designers to combine cooking with fashion in 1953 when he designed a dress embroidered with sliced ​​tomatoes on a “salt-colored” fabric. Forty years later, Cynthia Rowley printed a cornfield on a minidress, and in 2004, Phoebe Philo went wild for her spring/summer collection at Céline, covering dresses and swimsuits in fruit. Dolce & Gabbana has also been drawing inspiration from the new section for a long time. At Milan Fashion Week 2011, the Italian house presented bustiers, maxi skirts and tailored jackets embellished with eggplant, onions and peppers.

No stranger to serving a variety of food in his clothes, from crocheted radishes to bunches of grapes and lemons, J. W. Anderson is more interested in making people laugh than making them hungry. “I love this idea of ​​humor in clothing,” he told Vogue in 2021. “Stones on jeans. Peach in the middle of the sweater. Something that makes you smile.”