Hungry like the wolf for birds, if wolves ate birds the way I devour pointless market analysis.

Since I've been all about nesting this week I thought it would be a great time to utilize puns talk about birds.  I happen to like our feathered friends but I'm sure we've all cried a little at all the inane shit with birds on it that's everywhere just as much as we've laughpeed a little at Portlandia's Put a Bird On It.  But that kind of stuff - the retail trend - is where trends go to die a slow and poorly-thought-out infectious death.  So when I saw the world's foremost trend expert Lidewij Edelkoort talkin that special bird talk on Trend Tablet I figured it was a nice way to illustrate the birth of a real trend.  The kind that can define a decade and not one that you can find at Urban Outfitters.  Honeysuckit can, well, suck it.  


BEHOLD the 'lifestyle trend' where the word 'trend' isn't a gimmick you get to feel superior for snubbing (she says as she reclines on her Anthro pillow that may or may not have a bird on it..) but instead a socio-economic commentary in the form of pretty pretty pictures that forecaster sell to retailers for thousands of dollars only for them to put a bird on it.  Damn I want that job!

"now that we have recovered from the worst and are experiencing a new fluidity of movement, the economy and therefore culture will take us to a higher plane for a new and even better perspective. in a positive and optimistic mood, fashion and design will take flight and give us wings on the road to new colours, more texture and exalting creativity.  the world of birds is therefore our source of inspiration, with their interesting behaviour patterns previewing the society of man. living in flocks they inspire us to congregate and share, building nests and inviting us to rekindle the love and care we want to give our family and friends; transgressing borders they install in us a new sense of freedom from convention and control; gathering food they initiate the idea of local produce and seasonal harvest.  the collecting of twigs and debris to weave birds’ nests will inspire us to rekindle a keen interest in artistic and crafted weaving, with designer yarns spun from opposing and complementary matter like mohair with silk ribbons and leather and lurex.
the rituals of courting and mating by the male specimens drive us towards a more erotic experience of the night and a more exotic take on rituals, using colour, dance and sound as essential attributes."

Sometimes overanalyzing makes me *eye-motherfuckin-roll* but when it's about pretty things and feelings it makes me squee!   


More fashion and people:

"as the nerd of the birds the owl will never stop to intrigue us.  the professor of birds teaches us a lesson in endurance, dedication and perseverance.he is designed to live a nocturnal life, just like an online nerd working through the night, hunting for virtual prey."

There is so much to read at the Trend Tablet page but I had to include the online nerd owl with its virtual prey because I think she's actually talking about blogging.  I'm on the hunt, y'all!  I'm hungry like the wolf!  Wait, that's a different metaphor...

mmhhhh... red.

The home and interior trends:

"A soft and gentle universe of clear and optimistic colour is inspired by the fluffed-up downy character of endearing baby birds..... Confident without being functional, basic without being boring and tender without being tedious, these colours are the basis of our range for 2011.  An endearing start to a new period of nesting."

I didn't say you had to like it but you have to acknowledge that it's out there.  Besides, "confident without being functional" is the most geniusly crafted observation I've heard in a long time.  

"Birds of a feather flock together in inner city clans and neighbourhoods enabling different societal expressions to be recognised by the group.  Living a make-do mentality that will dominate design with sheltering sanctuaries and squatted industrial buildings.  A survival sense of aesthetics will give the creative community a chance to express more freely and without boundaries.  Therefore the end of the age of individualism has arrived, allowing us to network and cooperate.  An army of dark neutrals will revolutionise interiors, becoming abstract and minimal."

"More than ever, our focus is on authenticity, honesty and local colour.  Inspired by the revival of a rural culture and the birds that roam the farm, the colours want to be trustworthy and traditional, with a slightly frozen and whitewashed quality to make them lively and vibrant."

"Nesting has become a contemporary keyword to describe our current and crafted lifestyle; open-ended yet cosy and comfortable.... The arts & crafts movement is making an important revival, inspiring objects made by hand in timber, hide, bone, ceramics and glass. Filling the nest with unique pieces.  The creative consumer is born."

"A new and soft range of coquettish cosmetic colours meant to be used for an elegant and sexual purpose, giving a refined and genderspecific meaning to paint.  Caged birds of exotic origins are inspiring a highly-charged and erotic sense of aesthetics, drawing on the idea of the liberal bondage of beauty. Translated to the real world with the concretisation of female fantasises in private spaces like the personal bathroom, the secret walk-in closet and the remarkable revival of the boudoir—the ultimate female sanctuary."

That's pretty smart commentary for a look I find pretty blech.  But maybe that's YOUR lifestyle - we don't judge here at the Sauce.  Except when it's ugly.  Or dumb.  But most definitely when it's dumb AND ugly though...

"Highly intelligent and powerful birds have been dark symbols since the beginning of man.  Resourceful and operating with a strict hierarchy in a large flock called a murder, they have become icons of the gothic movement, living often in cemeteries and believed to assist the transition of the spirit to the after life.  Standing for dark and almost dramatic environments, so much loved by the avant-garde, and therefore introducing much darker colours for the home."

I already liked crows anyway so I'm totally trendy in my lifestyle.  But now I want to knit and paint something black.  And collect wolves.  Wolves are the new birds for emo hipsters.  You heard it hear first.  If we could somehow crossbreed them we'd be millionaires.  It worked for Dr. Moreau.