Something’s Fishy — So What’s the Big Deal With Sardines Right Now?

They’re on your feed. They’re on your table. They’re in candle form. Sardines — once just a tinned snack — have become the aesthetic mascot of the internet’s strangest, most self-aware food trend.

And the merch is abundant. H&M Home recently dropped a fish-themed capsule complete with (sold out) sardine napkin rings and a napkin set that bluntly reads: “Sardines.” Anthropologie followed suit with a seafood-forward tabletop collection in collaboration with artist Dasha Lebedev, creator of The Original Tinned Fish Candle — a waxy homage to the silver tin that launched a thousand memes.

So, how did we get here? And why, exactly, are sardines… chic?

For starters, creations like Dasha’s smell better than the real thing. “No one wants a candle that smells like actual fish!” she laughs. “But I tie everything back into the seafood theme through the names. For example, my juniper and fir candle is called Gin-Soaked Gin in a Fir Coat, which is a play on one of my favorite Russian dishes called Shuba — it translates to 'Herring Under a Fur Coat.' Then there’s Pulpo in Tomato Sauce, which smells like fresh tomato leaf.”

Once the smell is stripped away, you start to notice the shape, the sheen — that silvery little fish starts to look kind of… pretty.

“I’ve always drawn anchovies or sardines — I don’t really know why,” shares the artist. “Maybe it’s because I grew up eating them, or maybe I just think they’re so cute to draw. There’s something about their shape, their shimmer, and the little tin they come in that’s always appealed to me."

Still, aesthetics alone aren't responsible for the interior trend's mass appeal. If they were, we’d have horse-shaped candles by now (we don’t — yet). What sardines represent is a hush of highbrow, a new kind of luxury: one that’s odd and more than a little ironic.

In fact, the sardine-as-decor thing isn’t even new. François-Xavier Lalanne made nearly four-foot-long sardine pillows back in 1971 — now valued between $6,000 and $8,000 at Sotheby’s. Today, you can buy a "giant" sardine-shaped cushion at Urban Outfitters.

Camp, clearly, ages well.

But more importantly, sardines — much like caviar or foie gras — exist in that delicate space where the more obscure or divisive the delicacy, the more taste it connotes. Not liking it? That’s gauche. Sardines say you’ve seen things, tasted things.

Poultry is so pedestrian.

Because the appeal isn’t just in the fish — it’s in the wink: “Sardines hit this perfect intersection of aesthetic, food culture, and humor,” says Dasha, now arguably the queen of glamorized fish. “There’s the retro appeal, the sustainability conversation, the Tinned Fish TikTokers making chic tinned fish boards… and then the camp of it all. It’s fun to treat something so humble like a luxury item.”

Luxury, after all, isn’t about price anymore — it’s about knowing the reference. You can try to resist — or, more appropriately, accept that you’ve been hooked.

Speaking of seafood obsessions, caviar is going absolutely nowhere. Shop my edit of the chicest caviar serving dishes, so you can top your crème fraîche–slathered chicken nuggets like a real tastemaker.