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subscribe to style file blog via RSSfree speech: food and fashion are more compatible than you think, says hadley freeman
October 21, 2008 10:27 am
Most people, quite understandably, think fashion folk have little interest in food (beyond avoiding it, that is). Please! Food is colorful, it’s potentially expensive, and you can be a total snob about it—OF COURSE the fashionable are obsessed with it. Treating it in the only way they know how, they make it not about nutrition or health, but trends. Just as some styles are suddenly in and some are suddenly verboten, so you find with food. In order to find out what the current sitch is, forget about looking to Martha Stewart; instead, turn to the fashion PRs, these now being the only people on the planet who seem to be able to afford to give out whatever overpriced morsels are the dernier cri.
For a while, neon-hued Ladurée macaroons were the seemingly unstoppable fashion party fuel, as essential and as ubiquitous as Spanx. But they were supplanted by a new hors d’oeuvre: miniature fast food in the form of dollhouse-sized portions of fish and chips, cheeseburgers so small even Mary-Kate Olsen would have complained, fingernail-sized slivers of pizza, etc. It’s, like, ironic, you see, and also a clever way to allow guests to get a mini carb fix without developing a bloat that would play havoc with their Balenciaga LBD. But really, these were just the briefest of flickers, because there is one food trend that is truly all-dominating and all-encompassing in the fashion world and anyone who has been invited out to lunch by a fashion PR or journalist knows what it is: Japanese food.
I cannot overstate this: The fashion industry is completely obsessed with eating Japanese. I literally cannot remember the last lunch invitation I received from a PR that did not involve the verbal lure, “They do really great sashimi there.” Seeing as I do not eat fish, this has given me the perfect excuse to never go out for lunch with any PR, ever. Nobu is partly to blame for this Japanese hysteria, as it has given sushi a pleasing sheen of Hollywood cool. But I think we all know the real reason for fashion’s love of this particular cuisine, which is that it provides a legitimate cover for an attitude towards one’s waistline that is best described as neurotic. Miso soup for breakfast, a tub of salty beans for lunch, and a slice of raw fish for dinner— now that’s what I call a hearty day’s eating. If you’re a half-starved 15-year-old model, perhaps. Personally, I struggle with the thought of starting my day with, say, salty broth instead of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. Frankly, it’s enough to make you look back at the macaroons as the good ol’ days.
tags: sushi
Hadley Freeman, is hilarious, personable and spot on! The last line of this article is perfect! Keep more writing like this coming!
By Erika14 on 10/21/08 at 8:12 pmDitto!!! In my English class at school, one of my assignments each week is to blog and I always look to Hadley Freeman for an article that is worth reading! And commenting, for that matter…
By Nigelific on 10/22/08 at 12:10 amI think Sushi and a lot of Japanese food in general are utterly disgusting! I just think the texture of sushi and the way you have to stuff it in your mouth all at one time is repulsive. And if you’re trying it for the first time, there’s no sampling. You just dive into it! There’s no going back.
I do love that mini-food is a new trend! I love miniature things! The pizza discribed reminds me of a more elegant and fashionable bagel bite. Who wouldn’t want to get bombarded by the paparrazi while chowing down on a baby slice of pizza!? That would totally make the front cover of any gossip magazine worth reading.
obviously this people have no clue about cals. and japanese food. Fools!. they think if it’s small it must be low cal.lol
By lannette on 10/23/08 at 8:12 pmthis fucking world whith fucking peaple.. eat too much… lol.!!!
By eminem on 08/23/11 at 12:28 pm