Love Bite: 2023 was the Year British Food and British Fashion Collided

Make it stand out

Back in September, something weird happened in London. Seemingly overnight, all over the area I live – and in some other places too – the same image was sprayed repeatedly on pavements. On closer inspection, I clocked that it was the Burberry logo – known as the Equestrian Knight Design – given a slight update under the fashion house’s then-new chief creative officer Daniel Lee, and deployed around the capital.

When I looked the stunt up online, I learned that the logo spraying was part of a larger Burberry campaign which sought to launch Lee’s first collection, Winter 2023, around London. The aims were to underline the brand’s foundations in the city and to align it with iconic British images and landmarks. Bond Street station, for example, became “Burberry Street station” (catchy!) for a day, and some black cabs were covered in Lee’s new signature Burberry rose print.

Also as part of this campaign, probably most notably of all, the brand also launched a collaboration with Norman’s, a café in north London which is essentially an #aesthetic version of a greasy spoon. Norman’s is well-known for its precisely-plated full English breakfasts, school dinner classic desserts (jam sponge pudding anyone?), and the massive queue that snakes out of its doors every weekend, owing largely to its Instagram page, on which stuff like perfectly posed sausages on sparklingly white plates are posted regularly to the tune of thousands of likes every time. 
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The partnership between the two brands saw Burberry taking over the Norman’s space (as far as I’m aware this meant “putting the Burberry logo on the plates”), while a Norman’s van toured around the capital during London Fashion Week on behalf of the fashion house. Since then, Norman’s has also visited New York, Seoul and Shanghai, repping their brand of classic British food alongside Burberry, as it tries to underscore its own status as a classic British brand at the beginning of Lee’s tenure. In general, then, Burberry x Norman’s felt emblematic of a year during which food and fashion felt like they became more interlinked than ever before.  

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When you think about it, the connection between the two makes total sense. Food and fashion follow many of the same principles. At their best, they’re both fundamentally about creativity, and making something beautiful by innovating on traditional techniques passed down through generations. On the other hand, at their worst, they’re also both very much prone to hype, rubbish trends, and style over substance – and these are the aspects that often felt pushed to the fore by brand collaborations and deals this year. 

“The way that food and restaurant culture has evolved in recent years – particularly as social media native millennials have aged up into having both an interest in restaurants, and the disposable income to spend in them – has seen it follow in fashion’s footsteps.”

Indeed, the way that food and restaurant culture has evolved in recent years – particularly as social media native millennials have aged up into having both an interest in restaurants, and the disposable income to spend in them – has seen it follow in fashion’s footsteps. Just as the girlies queue up at sample sales for hours to get their hands on a much-coveted dress or bag (I’m “the girlies”), all over the UK (in London in particular, but it does happen elsewhere) hopeful diners now frequent hypey cafés hoping to bag limited edition coffee swirls and quince tarts, and fall over themselves for reservations at restaurants called things like “Jessie’s” and “Brine”, the same way they logged on to try for a pair of leopard print Wales Bonner Sambas.

The reason why food and fashion feel closer than ever, then, is because social media means that they are evolving in the same direction, often targeting the same people. Because of the holistic, lifestyle-sharing nature of social media, the ever-moving trend carousel isn’t just about what you wear. It’s also about where you’re going to wear it, and what you eat and drink while you do, too: it’s all part of a full curation of the self. Over the course of the year, then, the food we have eaten – and shared – has come to carry more and more weight. 

Blokecore saw the full English and the traditional boozer making a mark on a new generation of fashion boys (Blue Posts TikTok, anyone?), while the big-scrunchie-and-Ganni-bag, Real Housewives of Clapton-ification of olives and crisps has continued apace (in fact, earlier this year, the meme page ran a takeover of the menu at La Cave at the Hoxton, Holborn, featuring many of the items frequently mentioned). 

Brands of course have caught onto the fact that they have shared consumers, and at fashion events I’ve been to over the last few months, it hasn’t been unusual to see the catering done by the types of restaurants, bakeries and sandwich shops that pop up as frequently as clothing brands on my Insta Explore page, with pics of branded coffee cups shared online alongside images of the clothes on display. And as well as these more straightforward collabs, there even seems to be more of a fashion influence in how food is presented to us online. 

The way that food and restaurant culture has evolved in recent years – particularly as social media native millennials have aged up into having both an interest in restaurant and the disposable income to spend in them – has seen it follow in fashion’s footsteps in a lot of ways

It’s questionable how real the indie sleaze “revival” actually was outside of TikTok – I’m counting my lucky stars that it wasn’t palpable enough to convince me that side fringes, disco pants or MKAT were a good idea in 2023 – but its lingering aesthetic of flash-on, Y2K digicam-style, candid photography has now certainly infiltrated the “cool” corners of restaurant culture and food media. There seems to be a growing gonzo, party photography approach to snaps of dining rooms, kitchens, and staff mid-service, to give a sense of bustle, fun and youth. 

This particular shift in some is definitely an exciting one – anything that communicates the sheer enjoyment of being in a busy restaurant eating delicious food is a good thing – and where the growing links between food and fashion are concerned more generally, it’s lovely to see often independent food businesses being given a big leg up by massive fashion houses, and celebrated for what they’re doing.  

But while social media is the greatest democratisation and information-sharing tool in the world, it can also have a very flattening aesthetic influence, which sometimes encourages homogeneity – not particularly great for any creative medium. Sometimes when food and fashion have come together this year, the effect has been more about selling a particular affluent city lifestyle – where money is involved, innovation always comes second to the safety of the bottom line – rather than revealing anything new about either side. I hope that in 2024, we see a bit more of the latter, with these two art forms elevating each other as they deserve. 

Words: Lauren O’Neill