Low-carb, low-calorie, low-sugar — no wonder fashion has fallen in love with the vegetable. While last year fruit was the route to your fashionable five-a-day, this season, the humble herbivore has gone haute and allotment chic reigns.
Inspired by “mamma’s cooking”, Dolce & Gabbana’s spring/summer collection is splattered with aubergine, courgette, onion and chilli prints. Throw in garlic bulb clip-on earrings and farfalle necklaces and, as Stefano Gabbana noted, there are enough ingredients “for a wonderful all’arrabbiata”. The collection was inspired by the 1955 comedy Pane, Amore e... and features
waist-cinching dresses, pencil skirts, high-waisted shorts
and crop tops.
The famous have lapped up the look. Felicity Jones, the Like Crazy actress and face of Dolce & Gabbana’s make-up range, was unsurprisingly among the earliest adopters, stepping out at the end of last year in an aubergine-print silk organza dress. The singer Pixie Lott wore the same print — this time on a midi pencil skirt, bralet and blazer — for the London premiere of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists last month.
Meanwhile, Paloma Faith and Pixie Geldof both chose the chilli; Faith teaming her frock with an embroidered cardie and a headscarf for an interview, while Geldof wore hers with black peep-toe heels at the Elle Style Awards. And earlier this month, Kelly Brook picked a long-sleeved, red onion and floral-print frock to watch boyfriend Thom Evans model in New York’s From Scotland With Love fashion show.
The Dolce & Gabbana duo weren’t the only designers seeking inspiration at the greengrocer. At Moschino Cheap & Chic, where the show invites arrived with a packet of seeds and the set was a fruit and veg stall, maxi and mini dresses came with carrot and radish prints and mini-veggies were used as buttons on raincoats. But the biggest cheer came for a hat that Bugs Bunny would love: a carrot sliced in two by a model’s head. The theme continued into autumn/winter, with Trussardi setting its show in a veg, spice and fruit market.
For a nod to the trend, Prada’s little sister line Miu Miu’s earrings feature chillis, and Dolce & Gabbana also made veggie key chains, bracelets, scarves and swimwear. Veggie prints have descended the fashion food chain too, with Primark selling a chilli-print skater dress and River Island a chilli-print cardigan.
The trend’s appeal perhaps lies in its frivolity and whimsy; at a time when there’s little cause for cheer, veggie prints certainly raise a smile. So whichever print you pick, this is the summer to be veg-azzled.
