According to Business Insider, rumors of an imminent collaboration between Travis Scott and fast food giant McDonald’s, are confirmed. A memo from the US Chief Marketing Officer, Morgan Flatley, explains in detail the reasons for the operation, which should see the light in early September.
This news allows us to deepen the relationship that exists between the world of fashion and fast food that, strange as it may seem, began in Italy with the phenomenon of costume and closely related to fashion, of “paninari“.
Born in the early ’80s in the Milanese metropolitan area, the phenomenon, characterized by the rejection of any kind of social and political commitment and based on appearance and consumerism, had as its center of aggregation and socialization the new American-inspired sandwich shops (Burghy for example) that had brought to Italy, the country of slow-food, the new concept of fast-food.
The mix between the American brands of the ’50s like Timberland, Levi’s, etc. and Italian brands such as Moncler, Best Company, El Charro and Invicta, defined the Italian youth aesthetic of the ’80s.
The link between the world of fashion and that of fast food has then materialized through pop culture that has made “junk food” an aesthetic and cool element.
Jeremy Scott was the first designer to incorporate this type of element into a collection with Moschino‘s Fall/Winter 2014, featuring a choice of red and yellow colors, golden arches and bold outfits inspired by the work uniforms of McDonald’s restaurants.
Another example of how haute couture has assimilated and embraced mass consumer food products is Chanel‘s Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2014 show, when Karl Lagerfeld paraded the models in a supermarket, among canned soups and cereals.
The world of streetwear, for context and attitude, lends itself much more to this kind of mixing. NIGO, for example, opened its BAPE Café in 2002 and despite abandoning the brand, continued its journey into the culinary world with the launch of the Curry Up restaurant chain in Tokyo in 2010.
The cultural heritage of NIGO, which ranges from the world of American vintage in the 50s and pop culture (the same that moved the paninari in Italy in the 80s), contributed to the creation of a capsule collection in collaboration between HUMAN MADE and the fast food chain KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) with the opening of a pop-up store in Manhattan.
Supreme x White Caste, Liam Hodges x Dominos, Vetements parading in a McDonald’s, KITH Treats and the Carhartt coffee shop are just more examples of a trend that seems to have no limits.
Now we just have to wait and see what the joint venture between Travis Scott and McDonald’s has in store for us, also because it seems to be just the beginning of a series of collaborations between the fast food chain and other personalities from the showbiz world.
