When a tremendous bird spreads his wings accross a lyric gray sky, a slight squeak holds the crowd spellbound. Provoking sometimes fascination, sometimes revulsion, birds mesmerize the captive audience. Then, when the words ‘bird’ and ‘fashion’ brush against each other, you can expect nothing but a firework.

Baudelaire, in his famous poem ‘The Albatross’, compared poets to these lords of the clouds. And somehow, we could generalizing this sentence to every human on Earth. Aren’t we all little or no greedy like vultures, frail like sparrows and gloomy like ravens ? Thus, it makes sense that Fashion Gods sharpened their claws on this inspiration. It seems like in spite of the years that go by, designers cannot prevent themselves from being inspired by these winged creatures.

In his Spring/Summer 2010 collection, Gareth Pugh delivered his own vision of the bird woman. His postapocalyptic princess dressed in skyscraper gray from head to toe, was a modern version of a harpy.

And do you clearly remember Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2012 collection ? The McQueen woman was like a bird emerging from the sea. Her lace dress merged with her pale skin whereas a trail of oil soiled her virginal wispy body.

See, birds are EVERYWHERE. So next time you will look up to the sky, don’t forget to observe these feathered creatures, they might feed your mind with some freaking amazing inspirations. And if you suffer from ornithophobia, stay away from The Birds…

Gareth Pugh SS 2010.

Alexander McQueen SS 2012.

François Perrier, Aeneas and his companions fight the Harpies.

The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.