There’s Something Fishy About The Sardine Trend
@staud.clothing
Is it just me, or did the sardines take over fashion?
Of all things, sardines have become one of the biggest new print trends in all of fashion. The tinned fish trend has been steadily rising for a few years, with Staud’s “Staudine” Tommy Bag launching a few seasons ago and becoming a staple of the brand, but on a recent trip to Anthroplogie, I was overwhelmed with the amount of fish prints. They weren’t just beaded onto bags and shoes but printed on T-shirts, dresses, and even styled as jewelry. The sardine is suddenly the coolest thing around.
Food and fashion are longtime friends, but I’m not the only one to observe that wearing food—and using it as a marketing tactic—has gone into overdrive as of late. Is it perhaps in direct correlation to the rise of GLP1s and a shift in how we view food? Maybe, but that’s probably more related to the increase in comparisons between lip glosses and sweet treats than the sudden uptick in sardines.
As far as I know, sardines are not a treat that many crave. Sure, they’re supposed to be a pretty decent and nutritious snack if you’re looking to get some extra Omega-3s in your diet, but let’s be real; they’re synonymous with a very strong fishy smell and a feeling of overcrowding, neither of which sounds particularly appealing or like something that anyone would want to emblazon across their shirt or display on their $300 beaded purse. And yet…
I did learn last summer while my mom and I visited Portugal that grilled sardines are a summer favorite amongst locals; our tour guide recommended we try them if we were by the sea. Alas, I never did manage to find any local restaurants grilling up sardines, but you know, I’m more of a sushi girl, anyway.
However, the correlation between sardines and the ever-trendy Mediterranean summer lifestyle does make sense in regards to why they have become a new fashion status symbol. Anything that conjures up visions of warm summer days sipping Aperol Spritzes by the ocean or enjoying a rich, lemony pasta in a vineyard is bound to be fashionable, and sardines have become the sartorial stand-in for the romanticization of even the simplest of European lifestyles. At least here in America, we are constantly yearning for European summers, siestas, month-long sojourns to the seaside in the month of August, and all the other joys that I imagine universal healthcare and a better work-life balance provide.
When you next find yourself browsing an Anthropologie and considering the call of the sardine, is it actually a subtle protest of our modern American world and its many stresses? Or maybe it’s just a fun and zany food to put on a T-shirt. Sometimes fashion is just that; frivolous and nonsensical.