With quiet luxury and Barbiecore peaking—finally!—the new trend the TikTokers are talking about is Tomato-Girl Summer. No, this isn’t a marketing ploy à la Heinz but a look centered on the cheery color red and Mediterranean-vacation-ready looks.
Among the pop-culture moments that seemed to pave the way for #TGS are the strawberry dress of 2021 and last year’s obsession with the Sicily-set second season of The White Lotus. It’s as if the heroine headed to Italy for romance and stayed for the food. (Tomatoes, once believed to have aphrodisiac powers, have sometimes been referred to as love apples.)
People used to joke that fashion people didn’t eat, but the topic of food and fashion—which happens to be the title of an upcoming exhibition at the Museum at FIT—is no longer taboo. From coffee bars in boutiques to pasta and pastry prints on the runways, these days it’s not just your heart you can wear on your sleeve.
