Fashion gets fruity

The style menu was set when Pantone announced Peach Fuzz as the colour of 2024, describing the light orangey tone as “a gift to the senses . . . creating a symbiotic relationship between taste, sight, touch, and scent.” It is also an apt description of the fresh new fashion ahead. 

At the Burberry spring/summer 2024 show, creative director Daniel Lee drew inspiration from English meadows, with open-back dresses blossoming with strawberries and cherries. At Valentino, outgoing artistic director Pierpaolo Piccioli sculpted fabrics using a 3D technique pioneered by the atelier, called altorilievo (high relief), creating flowers and fruit that furled around the body.

For autumn/winter 2024, Chemena Kamali, new creative director of Chloé, introduced supple leather bags with gold banana hardware and pineapple-motifs hanging from statement necklaces. Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing was inspired by Pierre Balmain’s garden throughout the collection: a grocer-worthy display of fruits hung from the neckline of a strapless minidress, and apples, oranges, and strawberries sprouted from the shoulders of a Swarovski crystal-embellished number. Fruit basket bags offered something to carry it all in. Loewe embellished leather accessories with tropical fruits or crafted them entirely in their image, such as a one-of-a-kind strawberry-inspired Squeeze bag in hand-beaded leather with a fringed leaf handle.

“Fruits are a way to bring some playfulness into a collection,” says Brigitte Chartrand, vice-president of womenswear buying “and everything else“ at online retailer SSENSE. “JW Anderson did it best this season with his play on citrus across both his SS24 menswear and womenswear collections, from his orange leather bags, to his lemon tank top and all-over mesh layering top.”

The best way to taste-test the trend is to cherry-pick a single fruit style per look. Add zest to double denim with JW Anderson’s Lemon leather bag; sweeten an all-black evening look with Balmain’s bunch-of-grapes door knocker earrings, or freshen a pair of classic trousers with Kenzo’s fruit sticker shirting.

A taste for fruits has ripened beyond fashion too. Consider blueberry milk manicures, the rising popularity of the pineapple note in perfume and Tomato Girl make-up, inspired by the sun-kissed skin resulting from a southern European summer vacation.

What’s behind this latest appreciation of fruit in fashion and lifestyle? New York-based trend forecaster Agustina Panzoni, head of trends at visual media library DeathToStock, believes that the latest fruit fixation is part of a greater movement away from logomania and extravagant displays of material wealth to a more modest appreciation for everyday luxuries, something she refers to as “soft luxury”. 

Panzoni takes as a forerunner of this shift the online popularity of LA-based grocer Erewhon, which has been the subject of countless TikTok posts since at least 2019. First established in 1966, the then health food store became an upscale, wellness-driven supermarket which doubles as a social destination for the famous, and an accessible point of entry for those who wish to emulate them.

While waiting for a sighting of a Paltrow or a Kardashian, one could pick up a CBD-infused dragon-fruit “potion”, a sea moss supplement or sip on a smoothie made in collaboration with Kendall Jenner or Bella Hadid. In 2022, Hailey Bieber launched her Strawberry Glaze Skin smoothie ($19). Indeed, for Gen Z, “health” food is the new luxury and luxury brands are paying attention. Take, for example, Balenciaga’s collaboration with Erewhon. Launched during the house’s Los Angeles runway show last December, it included charcoal-infused juice (which was available in Erewhon) and ready-to-wear merchandise (still available in Balenciaga stores).

“[It’s] a different way of portraying wealth. When you think [about] the whole idea of creating items that become viral online, [that are then bought] to show how wealthy [one is] . . . We’re moving away from that into more of an idea of wealth as a lifestyle,” explains Panzoni. “So, being able to go for a walk and get a coffee outside, or going out and buying flowers for yourself. There’s an “in real life” allure that I think we’re gravitating towards . . . during the time of working from home and the digitalisation of lifestyles, being able to be in the real world, it’s a luxury, right?”

Perhaps it speaks to a deeper yearning for the organic, the tangible and the timeless, where luxury is found in the richness of everyday experiences. That, and I’m pretty sure it counts towards your five a day.

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