Santiago has also seen fashion move beyond pineapple prints and actually use pineapples as a viable, eco-friendly material. “High fashion is moving back to using more organic materials and thinking about sustainability, so they’re getting closer and closer to what the ethos of a chef is,” says Santiago.The slow fashion movement, after all, was borne from the pressing need for the industry to adopt more sustainable practices, and took inspiration from the slow food movement which called for the use of seasonal, local ingredients.
Stella McCartney, a trailblazer in sustainable fashion, has long been been an investor and advocate for leather alternatives, using mycelium-based “mushroom” leather for her ready-to-wear collections. Her 2025 is her most sustainable collection to date, and features a first-ever handbag crafted from Hydefy, a fungi-based vegan alternative to leather and garments spun from Kelsun, a seaweed-based textile used commercially in luxury for the first time.
Mushroom, pineapple, cactus…these are just some of the leather alternatives being used by luxury fashion houses from Chanel to Hermès. But now, it’s not just food that’s infiltrating the runway. Chefs have begun storming the catwalk, most famously starting with NYC chef of Mission Chinese Danny Bowien who strutted his stuff for designers like Eckhaus Latta, Sandy Liang and Collina Strada. Just this May, Kwame Onwuachi graced the MET Gala red carpet before the James Beard award-winning chef behind NYC restaurant Tatiana curated the dinner for the evening inspired by his Nigerian-Jamaican heritage.
The success of Emmy-winning show The Bear, which just dropped its fourth season, proves that our obsession with food has leapt off the plate and onto the chefs themselves. Even in a show about family trauma and the perils of the restaurant industry, fashion became a plot point, involving a custom Thom Browne chef coat that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) gifts Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). Jeremy went on to model for Calvin Klein in his underwear in a now-viral ad. “Those Calvin Klein ads made the chef sexy,” says Santiago. “I think for a long time, the chef’s image was of an older, chubby guy, with a dirty apron, but I think now chefs are more conscious about their health and have an interest in other areas, like fashion and lifestyle. Chefs are becoming some sort of celebrities, who have a say and impact in different spheres.”
While we may not be seeing Santiago Lastra on the catwalk anytime soon, he certainly looked anything but grubby as he went up to accept his award for KOL, once again listed in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, one of only two restaurants in London to make the cut for 2025. He stepped onto the prestigious stage, wearing a dapper herringbone suit, a familiar zigzag printed shirt peeked out from underneath. Who had dressed this rising culinary talent for the occasion? Why Missoni, of course.
