Roll out the red licorice carpet. The evolution of music might have cracked open a candy-shell, revealing a magical and wonderful world of fashion that will make Willy Wonka weep.
Sabrina Carpenter’s massive hit “Espresso” (2024) proves that sugar has gone beyond Coca-Cola’s lab and sits on the tastebud of stylists across the globe. Is it that sweet? I guess so.
While Project Runway was the first to unwrap the term “Candy Couture” in 2012, the sweet tooth of fashion has been aching since the 1960s, when color became the snack of rebellion and liberty. This saccharine sensation lingered into the 1970s and 1980s, when color blocking became the primary nutritional value of the disco subculture.
Today, “Candy Couture” spins regular color composition and silhouettes like cotton candy. The point is to count all the colors in a bag of Sour Patch Kids and put them all on yourself. It’s not about looking “good”. It’s about looking “camp.” (Right in the eye, am I right Karlie Kloss?) The trend ties visual expression into the symbol of candy in childhood fantasies, crystallized with imagination and sprinkled with wonder. It’s extra. It’s youthful. It’s frivolous.
When it comes to “Candy Couture,” channel your inner child in a candy store. The rules? Everything you can put in the shopping bag until your sugar daddy comes back. That’s what Katy Perry did with her cavity-inducing costume in “California Gurls” (2010): glittery blue/purplish bikini bottoms, an ocean blue wig, and skin-color high heels. The starburst of the styling is her bras with two cupcakes attached to the M&M-ary glands. Oh, and whipped cream gun bras, too, if you’re a fan of dairy.
Sliding on Miss Perry’s frosting, American pop-star Melanie Martinez on her 2024 Trilogy Tour dresses up as a baby with a cotton candy pink doll dress, half black half colored hair just like fruit by the foot, and tattoos. What an eye-candy. In the K-pop universe, aespa raided Claire’s and Candy Crush for their “Supernova” KBS stage comeback. Heart-shaped earrings paired with cheetah miniskirts are sure to give fashion critics serious diabetes.
Heart diseases aside, who doesn’t love some sugar and spice? Come to Candyland, where gummy bears in Balenciaga dresses you up like Lady Lollipop. Just like the wise Skittles commercial once said, when you see the rainbow, you taste the rainbow.