Tomato sauce drip is now an ‘iconic fashion statement’

Like a scene from Zoolander, a model strides along an urban street, her vintage couture pristine but for a smear of red by her left shoulder – it’s tomato sauce, and it’s there on purpose.

Is it Derelict 2.0? No, it’s Heinz.

According to UK tabloid the Daily Mail, the UK condiment – and beans – brand has teamed up with US fashion re-sale brand Thread Up to sell the idea of stained clothing as a fashion statement, rather than just poor table manners.

The duo launched a “fashion collection” featuring 157 pieces of second hand clothing, including high fashion and street wear pieces, each “stained” with a splotch of red sauce, to celebrate the iconic status of spilling your tea down something you paid a lot of money for.

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“We saw an opportunity to view the stain we’ve been leaving on clothes as another iconic brand symbol and change the narrative from a stain to a statement,” Heinz spokeswoman Alyssa Cicero told the Mail.

The clothes are for sale via Thread Up, and included pre-loved t-shirts by designers such Hilfiger, Gucci and Michael Kors, as well as a white rive gauche dress by Yves Saint Laurent.

Fast fashion – low quality, high volume clothes that sell for low prices – was labelled “evil and immoral” by Kiwi designer Kate Sylvester, last year.

According to Thred Up, buying second hand can offset the ecological impact of the fast fashion industry to the tune of 454,000 tonnes of CO2e each year.

So, would you rock a stained top for the environment?