Beauty mogul and Rhode founder Hailey Bieber recently posted a a series of editorial photos on her Instagram to tease an upcoming collaboration with Fila. One of the pictures is not like the rest. In it, Bieber is caught mid-gasp as an artful collection of vibrant carrots, ripe bananas, and glossy tomatoes tumble from a brown bag cradled in her arm.
The image has ignited an impassioned discussion on social media. One X user wrote of Bieber’s post, ”That one influencer that predicted fresh food would become part of fashion in 2025, because groceries are too expensive, & it’s a status symbol to waste fresh produce ate so bad.” The influencer in question is TikTok user @kfesteryga, whose account is dedicated to tracking where food is “being positioned as a status symbol,” from the Instagram accounts of the Kardashians to the bodice of Zendaya’s Met Gala outfit.
While this theory is finding traction online (the aforementioned tweet has already racked up 507,000 likes), produce-as-status-symbol is a trend that’s actually been cooking in various forms for years. According to Andrea Hernández, author of the food and beverage trends newsletter Snaxshot, “It’s not new so much as it’s now getting more attention because of ‘conspiracy’-style TikTok videos.”
Food industry experts may have sniffed this out years ago, but now, flexing with vegetables is primed to go fully mainstream—and the reality of the phenomenon is pretty depressing.
How did we get here?
Groceries as a fashion statement can be traced all the way back to the 1930s, designer Elizabeth Goodspeed points out for It’s Nice That. But the trend has seen several revivals over the years, including the bacon craze of the 2010s or the twee cupcake fad of the same era.
In 2014, the grocery store itself became a site of high fashion when Chanel hosted a supermarket-themed show that was basically unavoidable on fashion Twitter. Months later, Kristen Stewart was photographed by Elle magazine sandwiched delicately between rows of lush green lettuce and processed peanut butter.
In the past few years, the trend has trickled down from runways and magazine spreads into the hands of the average consumer, most often in the form of kitschy novelty goods. There have been bags inspired by Heinz packets and pizza boxes, hand-beaded butter purses, and enough tomato-inspired prints to last a lifetime.
The food-inspired design frenzy has historically been unoffensive. Recently, though, a bleaker take on the trends appears to be emerging, and it strips away the glitz and whimsy to reveal the unfortunate truth: Fresh produce is increasingly considered a luxury good.
Carrot-chic
Ongoing inflation has consistently ranked as a central concern for Americans in the years since the pandemic, and 2025 is no different. According to a report this month from the Labor Department, the consumer price index increased 3% year-over-year. The index accounts for rises in key purchases like gas, cars, and groceries.
“[Groceries-as-luxury] is definitely a post-2020 sentiment, and as we’re halfway in the decade, it’s no surprise to see it permeate into the mainstream,” Hernández says. “Food scarcity and grocery prices skyrocketing is real, and our generation made fancy smoothies a form of affordable affluence. It’s Gen Z’s ‘avocado toast trope.’”
Indeed, despite outrage over the ever-increasing cost of living, Gen Z seems almost morbidly fascinated with trends like Erewhon’s $20 smoothies or, more recently, the store’s viral $19 strawberry. “You can’t afford a house, but you can splurge on $25 smoothies,” Hernández quips. Meanwhile, on social media, Gen Zers are earnestly romanticizing a frugal adult life, one that still seems out of reach in the current economic climate: “One day you’ll be buying groceries to cook dinner in the small apartment you rent,” a viral aspirational tweet reads.
As grocery prices surge, luxury foods gain more mystique and social clout. Now, though, prices are so prohibitive that access to plain old produce is becoming a wealth signaler.
Bieber’s recent Instagram post is one example of this shift, but, on her TikTok account, @kfesteryga has documented plenty of other recent instances of the trend. These include an Instagram story from Kim Kardashian highlighting an untouched plate of out-of-season grapes; a Stylist cover of Adam Brody next to a cake topped with bright red cherries; and a photo shoot of Pamela Anderson enjoying a multitier fruit platter.
These posts show that there’s no longer the need for the aesthetic trappings of the supermarket or the eye-catching repurposing of processed foods into leather handbags to convey a sense of exclusivity. A simple brown bag of carrots and bananas can do that all by itself.
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