Fashionable Food Fare

Fashionistas and Their Food Habits

I often compare food to fashion, and it’s not just because I have a lifelong love for both. Like fashion, food is an art form unto itself, and like a master creation from the mind of a fashion designer or stylish star, the end creation is created by combining ingredients and materials with a stroke of creativity and, in my favourite cases, innovation. It’s no surprise then that some of the fashion industry’s most iconic names have fascinating, or outright weird, food habits.

Audrey Hepburn

While not a designer, Audrey Hepburn is undoubtedly a style icon and considered one of the most fashionable women in history. A little known fact about the star is that she had a lifelong obsession with pasta after suffering extreme malnourishment as a child during the Second World War. In his book, Audrey at Home, her son wrote, “Mum had a serious pasta addiction. She couldn’t do without pasta. Her absolute favorite was spaghetti with tomato sauce. She could live on that alone.”

Karl Lagerfeld

Famous for his eccentricities, Lagerfeld was known for extreme dieting and released a book in 2004 sharing his somewhat bizarre eating habits. The German designer drank up to 10 Diet Cokes a day, thought toast was ‘the height of luxury’, and had his private chef prepare him dishes like soufflé, quail flambé, and roast guinea fowl.

Vivienne Westwood

Not quite as creative as guinea fowl, British designer Vivienne Westwood says that lettuce is her favourite food, once telling an interviewer that she and her husband eat a full head of lettuce daily, accompanied with a simple dressing of garlic, oil, lemon, a bit of sugar and a bit of Bouillon powder.

Marilyn Monroe

Another Hollywood style icon, the famous actress used to eat two raw eggs whipped with warm milk for breakfast. When questioned about her interesting choice she said, “I doubt any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry.”

Oscar de la Renta

According to interviews, rice pudding “Dominican style” was one of Oscar de la Renta’s favourite dishes because of a nostalgic connection, it reminded him of his childhood in the Dominican Republic. He preferred the dish with lots of milk, sugar and cinnamon.

Giorgio Armani

Despite having amassed a legacy of fine dining restaurants on top of his already impressive fashion empire, Giorgio Armani loves eating simple Italian dishes that remind him of home.

“I grew up in a difficult period during the war – so we ate simple dishes made with very few ingredients. Since then I have retained an enjoyment for classical Italian dishes,” he said in one interview.

Coco Chanel

The iconic French fashion designer had an eccentric diet influenced by many of the finer things in life, including daily doses of champagne and oysters. She believed that wine and caviar would keep her young and often indulged in both at breakfast. The French icon also had an affinity for sweet treats and decadent hot chocolate, and she often frequented Parisian favourite Angelina for her sugary fix.