We didn’t know it at the time, but maybe the writing was on the walls when Fishwife launched their completely gorgeous and not-at-all-tinned-fish-looking tins of fish back in 2020. A segment of the market once reserved exclusively for clandestine desk lunches and, well, cats suddenly got sexy. In an instant (or so it felt), it was cool to have a tin of sardines in your pantry, hot to order the anchovy toast and essential to know the difference between the two. But that was in the food world. Fashion was perfectly happy not to be associated with the non-perishable pursuits of pescatarians.
Until Miuccia Prada made it so deeply covetable to be into the marine-ness of it all with Miu Miu’s spring/summer 2024 collection, that is. A sports-inflected presentation saw models traipse down the runway in Speedo-style briefs worn with sandals fashioned from rope, fresh-from-the-ocean hair slicked down their backs. The floodgates were open, and a tsunami was forming.
Less than a year later, Fishwife reinvented the wheel again by way of a collaboration with quirky-cool San Francisco brand Lisa Says Gah! There were Fishwife’s signature sardines, plastered across the breast of a baby-tee, little silver fish threaded into a dainty necklace and bracelet, the poppy illustrations of the tins reimagined into nail stickers. The fisherman aesthetic followed suit: rope bags and netted dresses met nautical stripes and fisherman sandals, and all of a sudden everyone was desperate to resemble a retired banker-turned-yachty on the French Riviera.
In 2025 though, the obsession with the ocean has gone a step further. We don’t just want to dress like we spend time on the water. Now, we want to dress like the things that live in it. Fish, specifically. Just this week, InStyle declared the advent of Sardine Girl Summer in the northern hemisphere, characterised by Euro summer-inspired ensembles and rope bracelets loaded with fish charms. Fashion label Staud released not one, but two beaded versions of its best-selling Tommy bag adorned with “Staudines” (clever, we’ll admit), a crossbody that very convincingly resembles a tin of sardines and two woven totes in the shape of fish. Bottega Veneta’s Sardine line sees the sensual curve of the fish reimagined into the handle of its Intrecciato-weave bags and the arms of its sunglasses.
Is fish, or sardines, more specifically, resonating now because life is expensive and as far as sustenance goes, tinned fish is about as cheap as it gets? Maybe we’re collectively feeling a little fondness for a species often dismissed as a smelly last resort? Or, perhaps, like the microtrends of yore, it’s less explicable from a context perspective and just, you know, a vibe? Whatever it is, it seems a little fishy to us.
