The Birds Are Everywhere

In ancient times, birds were the means of divining fortune. Augurs prophesied births, deaths, and even wars by ornithological signs. These days, they seem to be a sure sign of good fashion.

About a month ago my sister-in-law gave me a beautiful Fossil pendant depicting an empty birdcage and a small bird suspended from a chain. The gift was meant to represent my favorite quote from the novel Jane Eyre: “I am no bird, and no net ensnares me.”

I loved the pendant and it got me thinking of all the places I’ve seen the bird motif recently. One of my favorite boutiques in Galena, Illinois – VintajEarth – has been presenting the bird design for years in their natural brass jewelry, but lately I have begun to see it in more mainstream lines as well.

It isn’t just for niche fashionistas anymore; excuse the Hitchcockian reference, but the birds are everywhere.

“Several designers are using the bird motif in their spring 2012 collections – Carolina Herrera, Marc by Marc Jacob, and Jill Stuart, to name a few,” says Elizabeth Rouprich, owner of Visually Appealing, LLC, a South Carolina-based image consulting business. “It’s very feminine and lady-like, which you’re seeing in all areas of spring fashions.”

The Marc by Marc Jacobs line features this Night Bird Taffeta Dress, with a colorful bird pattern set against a bold black background. The Marc by Marc Jacobs Petal to the Metal line of bags, purses, and satchels also features a simple bird icon on a plain, solid-color background. The minimalism of these pieces and the strong presence of the bird image speaks explicitly to the emerging popularity of nature in today’s fashions.

The Herrera line features a bolder, busier print with bird designs presented in bright colors on dresses and blouses.

“It’s reaching all price points,” says Rouprich, who also cites Old Navy and Forever 21 as retailers who have gotten in on the trend. Forever 21 offers this $4.80 feather pendant with a bird charm – a far cry from the Marc Jacobs products that cost several hundreds of dollars. Old Navy offers a Bird Print Charmeuse Blouse for $36.94. If you’re a big fan of the bird trend, you can even have it surrounding you – literally. Anthropologie offers Lofty Larks Wallpaper, a soft vintage-inspired tableau of birds and birdcages against a pastel background.

The trend is also a big splash across the pond. Victoria Nicholls at Twistedangle.co.uk says that British retailers Topshop and Marks and Spencer (representing different ends of the price scale) have gotten in on it. Corporations aren’t the only ones picking up on the bird theme, however. Victoria says that the design is popular with craft enthusiasts who view their hobbies as art.

Twisted Angle (http://www.twistedangle.co.uk/) sells knitting patterns for hobby knitters “purely based on fashion trends,” says Victoria. “We featured a peacock jumper last edition. This particular piece was extremely popular on Facebook throughout the fashion sites as well as the craft ones.”

The bird design is all over Etsy.com, an e-commerce website that presents the handiwork of hundreds of international artisans. A search for the keyword “bird” will yield of 260,000 results in the category of “handmade” goods. Over 50,000 of those hits are from the jewelry section. 33,000 are listed as vintage.

Dori of Dori Jewellery on Etsy says that the bird trend has been huge on the site for some time. “Jewelry with bird motifs tends to generate good sales for me, particularly owls, swallows, and sparrows,” she says.

I was interested in the sentiments driving this new trend. Even had it not been accompanied by the Jane Eyre quote, my Fossil pendant – a bird outside its cage – is a profoundly symbolic image. Does it have to do with an increasing incorporation of nature elements in fashion? Are designers trying to evoke feelings of a simpler time, or even increase environmental awareness?

Dori weighed in on my idea. “There is a trend towards nature-inspired jewelry and birds tend to feature a lot, particularly flying birds, birds in cages and birds on branches,” she says. “My own inspiration comes from the birds I see in my back garden and nature walks in the countryside where I live [in Surrey, UK].”

Reflecting on my Jane Eyre quote, I began to wonder if the image – the birdcage one in particular – was meant to be a political statement of the liberated woman. I asked Andrew Schrage, co-owner of Money Crashers Personal Finance and a design expert for the site, and he had this to say: “Some prototypical explanations of displaying the birdcage image seem to correlate to a lack of power and feeling trapped in your life. I’d say that in this day and age, it is more a proclamation of the opposite.”

Birds have always seemed to be near-mystical creatures to humans. Their ability to breach the divide between Earth and the heavens has inspired admiration and reverence. Falcons were sacred to ancient Egyptians and thought to be all-seeing. Peacocks represent immortality. In Christianity the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17) and sparrows represent God’s love and protection (Luke 12:6). In ancient religions birds were also commonly used for sacrificial purposes – a means to an end, if you will. This contrast between the bird’s divinity and its helplessness in many ways mirrors the way mankind feels about itself.

All of this makes for some pretty powerful fashion.

Jane declares herself to be “no bird” at a pivotal point in Charlotte Brontë’s novel – when she is insulted by the perceived mockery of the man she is in love with. She recites the quote as a threat to leave him, an assertion of her own autonomy despite his wealth and social standing.

Schrage says that the ornithological fashion trend probably bears much of the same meaning.

“The modern-day translation is more along the lines of someone who is no longer encumbered by the restraints of our society today, and that of a woman that is daring and a risk-taker,” says Schrage. “I believe it is worn now more as a badge of courage rather than as a symbol of something holding one back.”