Everyone responds differently to stress, and after a year of shared tumult some unpredictable outcomes have included: influencers raising chickens, and an egg salad sandwich T-shirt selling like hotcakes. Designers, from Edie Parker to Bottega Veneta are selling egg-shaped clothing in egg-inspired colors (the latter makes shoes in a shade named Egg Yolk). Others have actual egg motifs. This, in a year when many of us have, let’s say, lowered the bar on home cooking and come to rely on the humble egg for our daily protein. Spring is officially here, and it’s beginning to look like the season’s biggest fashion trend is also quite possibly its most literal: eggs. They’re suddenly everywhere.
The egg obsession is something that we’ve been working up to. At one point in 2019, the most liked photo on instagram was a random egg. The pandemic has only amplified the egg’s power, imbuing it with unexpected meaning. After more than a year of being cooped up, overwhelmed, out of sorts, we can see something of a fresh start — rebirth — in the symbolism of the egg that feels all too necessary as many begin to plot their escape into plein air. For those stepping an uneasy foot out of the house for the first time, there’s comfort in eggs’ soft, soothing color palette; their shape without a single hard edge.
