This may go down in history as the year of themed dressing. Witness all the cinemagoers who dressed up as their favorite doll to see the Barbie movie or even indulged in a bit of Oppenheimer-core to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest. And see the many, many thousands of people who dressed up to attend Taylor Swift and Beyoncé concerts. Queen Bey even had a dress code for the shows during her birthday month, announcing on Instagram: “Virgo season is upon us. This tour has been such a joy and as we approach the last month, my birthday wish is to celebrate with you wearing your most fabulous silver fashions to the shows 8.23-9.22!”
In that spirit, we’d like to invite you to seek sartorial inspiration from the holiday feasts at the core of the last Thursday in November’s celebrations. We are talking about the humble can of cranberry sauce, its unmistakable shape and slight jiggle, the way its dark red color glistens in the light, surrounded by the various shades of beige and brown that dominate the dinner tableau.
If you think this proposal unhinged, a look at the recent runways might change your mind. In both the fall 2023 and spring 2024 collections, designers indulged their passion for cranberry sauce, utilizing the shade in a variety of statement pieces in unexpected materials—outerwear in particular. Take Priscavera’s shiny trench-coat dress, Del Core’s allover-embellished overcoat, or Dolce & Gabbana’s oversized feathered extravaganza (which also gives a bit of a nod to the turkey, if we’re being unserious—which we are).
Of course one can’t very well sit down to eat in outerwear, so consider Hermès’s ultra-luxe suede separates, a prim and proper leather suit from Versace, or even Rick Owens’s “casual” high-waist flared trousers and tank top with dramatic shoulders.
But this shade is no fad; at Sabato de Sarno’s debut collection for Gucci, it became the shade of the season as he introduced the world to Gucci Rosso, the label’s new signature color. Why not attend a family feast in a little leather bikini top and matching pencil skirt? Scroll through for a bit of culinary—er, sartorial—inspiration.
