How ‘food-luxxing’ trend is 2025's answer to the 'lipstick effect' theory

Celebs have been swapping out designer bags for supermarket totes, influencers are taste-tasting a $19 strawberry, olive oil has been rebranded as 'liquid gold' and Lurpak butter sits in cages on shop shelves. Welcome to the era of food-luxxing.

Food is a major pillar of human existence - it’s obviously vital to our survival, but it also forms community, experiences and evokes pleasure, too.

But now it’s gained a new notch to its belt.

Food has become the ultimate luxury status symbol, the latest IT thing - and there’s a darker underbelly to positioning our shopping trolleys as lifestyle signifiers.

A $19 strawberry (yes, not plural) has been going viral on TikTok, one of the many in a long line of food-focused trends on social media.

Influencers are filming themselves taste-testing the fruit, which sits on the shelves of luxury LA-based supermarket Erewhon, and comes in its own domed packaging reminiscent of the prestige afforded to a piece of diamond jewellery.

Hailing all the way from Elly Amai in Japan, which says its strawberries 'require a lot of skill and special techniques to grow' and 'are meticulously monitored for quality and taste', the supermarket says it's been struggling to keep the pricey fruit on the shelves.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the politics of food and the deeper meaning behind what's in our cupboards.

The TikTokification of our kitchen cupboards

Increasingly, food has found its way into pockets of TikTok aesthetics and ‘cores’ - think ‘tradwife’ (short for traditional housewife), ‘quiet luxury’ and ‘clean girl’.

Influencers are vlogging themselves perusing sun-drenched farmers' markets bustling with fresh produce or gallivanting the aisles of Erewhon in search of Hailey Bieber’s viral $20 smoothie collab before sitting in their car and showing us their supermarket haul.

If you were interested, Bieber's 'Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie' is a 'blend of almond milk, organic strawberries, bananas, avocado, dates, maple syrup, collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid, sea moss gel and coconut cream,' according to the site.

Others - including the likes of 'homestead' creators Nara Smith and Ballerina Farm - are growing their own food, proudly panning the camera over their sprawling multi-million pound estates and showing us how to care for our own sourdough starters and cook whole foods from scratch.

And audiences are lapping it up.

Food has even found itself in glossy print and fashion runways. Back in 2023, Kim Kardashian was papped swapping out her usual designer handbags for an Erewhon shopping bag as she attended the Balenciaga Autumn 2024 show.

This, of course, wasn’t an ordinary shopping bag - it formed part of a collaboration between the LA It Girl supermarket and the luxury fashion house.

For the price tag of £1,750, you too could own your own leather version of the shopper.

Meanwhile, across the pond here in the UK, the likes of Lurpak butter and sirloin steaks have become such hot property that they were placed in cages in some supermarkets to ward off thieves amid soaring prices thanks to the pandemic and the subsequent cost of living crisis.

And last year, olive oil was declared the most shoplifted item in supermarkets in Spain, earning it the moniker 'liquid gold'. The price of a litre of the cooking staple had skyrocketed from an average of around £4 in 2020 to a whopping £12 by 2024, according to Sky News.

But, set to the backdrop of the current state of the economy, food increasingly being positioned as 'luxury' actually makes sense.

The 'Lipstick Effect'

Back in the early 2000s, a term called the 'Lipstick Effect' was coined after Leonard Lauder of Estée Lauder noticed lipstick sales soared in times of economic hardship, suggesting consumers were opting to invest in smaller luxuries like a designer lipstick when they could no longer attain the larger ones.

But what does this have to do with food?

Well, as the cost of living crisis looms large and inflation balloons, typical status symbols such as home ownership, a posh motor or even designer clothing become so unattainable that young people are now using their shopping trolleys to get a taste of 'affordable affluence'.

You might not be able to afford a house deposit, but splashing out a tenner on a premium vanilla matcha latte is achievable.

Food is the new 'lipstick', so to speak.

The data backs this up - according to a 2024 study by the Bank of America, Gen Z handed over more cash than any other demographic to premium grocery spots, willing to splurge on more luxury snacks to line their fridges with.

Some of this is down to a rise in awareness of sustainability and plant-based diets, coupled with a general preference towards healthier, more organic foods which can become the hero piece of nutritious recipes.

But at the epicentre of this is identity - those wanting to convey a certain lifestyle, even if they're skinting themselves in the process.

Luxury brands have taken note of this too - the likes of Dior, Coach and Burberry have either opened their own cafes or hosted temporary pop ups in foodie hotspots across all areas of the world, inviting you to eat your croissant or Dior-emblazoned cookie in a high-end, exclusive setting.

Other brands have increasingly opted to use food as props in their marketing campaigns, whether that's PR gifting to influencers or using food in beauty campaigns.

An example of this is Rhode Skin, which displayed its range of makeup products among a plethora of sweet treats dripping in syrup including toasted marshmallows and strawberry-glazed donuts.

Signet rings out, pineapples in

Of course, there are other points in history where food has given us a glimpse into how healthy someone's bank balance is and the social circles they float about in.

Think about those in the Elizabethan era, for instance, whose rotten teeth showed they were rich enough to buy sugar, or when signet rings were swapped out for pineapples back in the 16th and 17th century as the prestigious exotic fruit made its way back to Europe.

Plus, anyone in the UK knows that when someone asks you what supermarket you shop in, they're forming an image of you based on how you answer, cogs turning as they figure out where you may fall in the social class hierarchy.

But the positioning of staple foods as 'luxury' has seemingly reached unprecedented heights in the last few years as economic hardship meets the social media hamster wheel and a hunger (sorry, I had to) for 'affordable' luxuries.

Food is not just about taste anymore, it's about identity and the lifestyle you wish to portray to the world (and your algorithm). A new type of luxury has been born, and I don’t think it's going away anytime soon.

Out with the Rolexes and in with the high-quality olive oil. Food-luxxing is here to stay.