Breaking fashion news: Greggs, yes, that Greggs, better known for its sausage rolls, is launching a jewellery collection. And that’s not the only thing; your kids are probably going to want to buy it.
The five-piece collection has been designed by British artist Dion Kitson and features pieces paying tribute to some of the high street bakery’s best-known bakes. There are sausage roll earrings, £36, a Jammie Heart necklace, £45, a Greggs logo signet ring, £48, and a £96 charm bracelet bearing symbols synonymous with Greggs, such as a coffee cup and a rectangular pizza slice. For the dedicated vegans, there is a vegan sausage roll version of the earrings embossed with a different pastry pattern. Each piece is made from 22-carat gold.
Timed to coincide with London Fashion Week, the collection will be available to buy online from Friday, with Greggs promising to release a link to buy on its social media channels ahead of the 10am launch.
If you’re bemused by this, you won’t be alone. Who wants to wear sausage-roll stud earrings when that money could be put towards buying a sausage roll simply to eat?
But fast food and supermarket fashion collaborations are definitely a thing. For a certain consumer, merch from Greggs, Lidl, KFC and the likes is the ultimate satirical style statement. At Glastonbury, Lidl logos were everywhere (this summer’s £50 croissant bag designed by New York artist Nikolas Bentel rapidly sold out). At the Reading Festival, it was the Greggs x Primark gear – a 2022 tie-in that was so successful, they followed it with a second drop. There’s been Balenciaga x Lays crisps, Supreme Oreos, and the OG of fashion fast food tie-ins, McDonalds and Moschino back in 2014.
The one with strongest staying power though, has to be Anya Hindmarch, whose witty Anya Brands accessories range include a Coco Pops sequined evening bag, a leather Diet Coke coin purse and a leather Love Hearts pencil case. Less desirable is KFC’s Eau de BBQ fragrance. We’ll pass, thanks.
These are all efforts from fast food giants to build brand awareness. “Food brands aren’t naturally ‘cool’, so fashion is their most obvious entry point, and it’s how they can create noise in an oversaturated market,” says Jonathan Kirkby, the founder of Instinct PR. “[They] are trying to stay relevant to Gen-Z and become part of the cultural zeitgeist.”
The idea of Greggs jewellery sounds like a clumsy attempt, but it’s actually quite clever – highbrow, even – because it’s created in partnership with Kitson, who has been hailed as the “Birmingham Banksy”.
Kitson’s work spans film, sculpture, collage and print, drawing inspiration from the most banal elements of life (enter Greggs). His fans include artist Gavin Turk and comedian Joe Lycett, while his solo exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham was sponsored by English Heritage.
Kitson has form at turning fast food into jewellery: among the products on his website are a gold Monster Munch ring (£100), a silver Haribo ring (£60), and a T-shirt featuring the name Dali styled like a Lidl logo (£40) – all of which have sold out. It bodes well for Greggs, and makes this a partnership in that it feels organic (even if the baked goods aren’t). The Greggs Icons charm bracelet and the Jammy Heart locket necklace feel like a natural evolution of Kitson’s offering.
It’s also marketing gold – literally – for Greggs. Not that it needs it, because there’s no shortage of affection for the high-street bakery, which has served many a hangover cure. The launch of its vegan sausage roll was national headline news, and in a recent Telegraph feature ranking it against middle-class favourite Gail’s, Greggs claimed the highest score. No wonder it’s expanding so rapidly.
“Everyone wants a slice of the Gen-Z cake,” says Kirkby. “But the success of these collaborations lives or dies by whether the ‘cool kids’ rate them.” Clearly, Greggs has perfected the recipe.
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