Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

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Great Minds Think Alike: Birds by Rochas, Perris, Hitchcock

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I’m always looking for pieces that remind me of this gloomy/gorgeous Fall 2006 bird gown by Olivier Theyskens for Rochas.

Oh, how I want this dress. Photo from Style.com.

This bodysuit-and-pants ensemble by Bernard Perris, spotted on 1stdibs.com, immediately brought the Rochas to mind.

$1,250 on 1stdibs.com. Click to shop.

I prefer seeing birds on clothes to birds on jungle gyms. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds has been on television quite a few times recently and it’s just as scary as I remembered it.

An ominous sight in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

I had my own “The Birds” experience several years ago in one of those well-off coastal California cities where drug addicts congregate, taking advantage of good weather and lenient local laws regarding living on the street. I was in the city to visit a jewelry “gallery” — you know it’s fancy when it’s called a gallery instead of a store! I was lugging around a big bag full of samples. After my appointment, with a lot of time to kill before leaving for the airport, I trudged up and down Main Street, looking for a place to hang out. Every Internet cafe and Starbucks was packed with guys between 20 and 40 years old, nodding out and scratching their arms. Their faces looked like a health warning and they stank to high heaven. At one point, as I dragged my bag through a parking lot, I passed a bird’s nest. An angry little bird flew out to squawk at me.  I thought, “Calm down, little bird, I’m just walking by” and picked up my pace. But a moment later, a flock of little birds came out behind the scout and attacked me, beating me with their tiny wings! Itty-bitty feathers were flying! I ran for my life. Once I got out of their range, I stopped for breath, looked up … and there was a junkie, sitting on a stoop, who had seen the whole thing. As soon as he had my attention, he pointed at me and laughed, “HA HA!” exactly like Nelson on the Simpsons.

After all that, the gallery never bought any of my jewelry.

Despite my bird trauma, I am amused by this doll depicting The Birds star Tippi Hedren.

Click to purchase.

And this Tippi Hedren look might be the best Halloween costume evah.

Fabulous Laura Moncur as Tippi Hedren for Halloween. Click for her original post.

The real Tippi in the movie, with the scary playground in the background.

I could do my own version of Tippi in my green Jacques Tiffeau dress, don’t you think? But instead of gulls or crows, I need sparrows on my head in recognition of my personal avian attack. And maybe someone needs to follow me around yelling, “HA HA!” for that extra bit of authenticity.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I don’t think I’ve seen that Rochas dress before, how can this be? I absolutely love everything Olivier Theyskens does. Must now hit style.com to look at the rest of that collection.

  3. HA HA! I can just imagine it, that is so funny. I’ve seen those dolls before, they are brilliant. The Bernard Perris dress is stunning, you would certainly do it justice with your amazing cleavage.

  4. GORGEOUS dress…I totally know why you love it…I like birds in a print…..in real life? ummm, not so much, lol….that movie freaks me out!!!

  5. Well what a terrifying experience BUT at least they didn’t leave anything on you. Mind you I’m told if that happens, you should buy a lottery ticket! Love the greens 🙂

  6. Oh my goodness, I would literally die if anything like that happened to me! I’m so scared of birds, withouth them attacking me! I get so annoyed when people are feeding pigeons because it’s basically like flying rats, with all the diseases they carry, I always want to ask them ‘would you feed rats like this, ha ? would you?!’ haha but a bit less intimidatingly! 😛

  7. Oh I’ve loved that Rochas dress since I first saw the photo. In fact I would wear either of those dresses in a heartbeat.

    However I would have needed a stiff drink following the episode with the birds.

  8. I’ve never been attacked by anything but a goose – and they are scary because they are big and they hiss! I love that the guy laughed like Nelson, it was probably super annoying at the time, but it makes a good story!

  9. Bizarre! I was attacked by a Starling in SF one time. Turned out its mate was dead nearby and it was defending the body, so I forgave it.

    Also that jumpsuit is divine and you should buy it.

  12. Are all those junkies Crusties? Crazy that they take over whole towns.
    And I’ve been attacked by birds twice now, once holding a french fry on a boardwalk and once at our park – birds are not my friends.

  13. I don’t mind owl pendants but that’s as far as I will allow birds to infiltrate my life. I have an absolute phobia of pigeons. I can hack pretty much any other horror film and I’ve seen most of the other Hitchhocks I couldn’t think of ANYTHING WORSE than watching ‘the birds’. x

  14. Those dresses are lovely in a disturbing but alluring way.

    DId you know that most of the birds in The Birds were actually mechanical birds? To me, that’s even scarier. We visited the school house one time in Bodega Bay, and it’s just as creepy in reality as it is in the movie.

    I don’t know what’s creepier, the birds attacking you or the junkie laughing. So glad you got the heck out of there!

  15. omg…i cannot believe you were actually attacked by birds…and in california…i better be careful! haha…that movie scared the living daylights out of me as a young child…

  17. I love birds but only from a distance. I have never watched the film as I can’t stand stuff like that. I love both of these dresses as all of the birds are distant and very stylish silhouettes,they do still have a slightly sinister feel to them though.

  19. I adore that Rochas dress – I can see why you’re on the search.

    I had never heard of anyone who had actually been attacked by birds but it sounds terrifying. I would never be able to watch The Birds again if that had happened to me (which would be awful because it’s a great film with amazing costumes).

  22. I love that story, and would happily walk around behind you laughing while dressed as a junkie. That sounds a bit wrong, but there you go.

    People commenting about liking the idea of birds, but not the creatures themselves reminds me of the Portlandia ‘Put a bird on it’ video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XM3vWJmpfo

    Sorry for the comment binge. I am trying to be more active when it comes to leaving comments.

  23. What a great idea! Do this “Birds” thing for Halloween this year.

    I can’t believe I never knew you were in your own version of “The Birds.” How traumatic. 🙁