Homesteading Girl-Bosses

& other foodie findings.

1. Homesteading: the new girl-bossing.

The sourdough starter to homesteading gateway is real. First came Covid—and a renewed enthusiasm (and pride) for cooking from scratch. Then came a feminist reclaiming of homemaker duties—and a newfound respect for the art of a well-oiled household. Now, running the home from scratch is the aspiration. Our feeds are flooded with lifestyle bloggers like Ballerina Farm, living off the land, raising chickens, making soap, sewing clothes, and, of course, baking sourdough. These are the new girl-bosses. They’re sustainable, they’re organic, and they’re coming for processed food, fast fashion, and the outsource economy.

2. Old-school cooking shows.

The modern food media landscape alienated itself from real life with highly produced and stylized content made for marketing. Consumers are craving the simplicity of 90s/early 2000s cooking shows where real people are cooking in a relatable environment. With 2M TikTok subscribers, Wishbone Kitchen is feeding this demand by pivoting to a new long-form YouTube show, Dinner with Friends. Mark this as the beginning of a media movement prioritizing authenticity over ~influence~.

3. Savory sips and fine-dining chips.

On our ingredient watch-list: savory beverages and fine-dining potato chips. Fruity flavors oversaturated, a savory water collection from Burdock Brewery, including kimchi and pickle flavor notes, caught our attention. Then last weekend, one of our Editors stopped by Talea brewery and discovered a genius collaboration with Chinese sauce brand Fly Bye Jing—any order of Sichuan-infused lager came with a complimentary jar of the buzzy Sichuan chili crisp. In the appetizer world, potato chips are getting a glow-up—in artful charcuterie-esque plates, at fancy cocktail bars, and paired perfectly to the caviar renaissance.  

4. We are what we eat.

Consumers’ ever-growing foodie afflictions directly impact fashion and interiors. A few items that have stopped us in our scrolls: Enna’s diner-scape matched set, Big Night’s dinner party candle, Marsh Declid’s Italian kitchen print story, and Eye Eaters’ al dente duvet. Tip: pay attention to trending foods and beverages and incorporate into assortments and creative brand assets for sticky aesthetic fodder.

Enna, Big Night, Marsh Declid, Eye Eaters.

5. Luxury fashion’s food pivot.

The Rochambeau Club’s recent in-gondola dining activations across the Swiss Alps paint a picture of where the rich and fashionable are spending these days. Amid declining sales, luxury fashion houses are future-proofing business by growing brand halos around foodie offerings. Designer department store cafes and pop-ups now a dime a dozen, stand-alone specialty stores are adding differentiation. Look to Louis Vuitton expanding its chocolate store franchise from France to the Asia market in Singapore. As logos and labels lose luster, food is the new fashion.

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