Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Birds


The Birds is a 1963 suspense/horror film directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film's innovative special effects, soundtrack, and apocalyptic theme influenced later "revenge of nature" disaster films. It's gone down in history as one of the first films to mix 'horror' and glamour on such a mainstream level, which is what Alfred Hitchcock is known for.

The storyline follows the young Melanie Daniels (played by Tippi Hedren) who is a San Francisco socialite. She decides to follow lawyer Mitch Brenner (playe by Rod Taylor) to his home in Bodega Bay, California. What Melanie doesn't know is that the time she picked to head to Bodega Bay is the wrong time. The birds in the area are becoming increasingly aggressive and soon every human being around comes under attack. With Annie Hayworth (played by Suzanne Pleshette), a close friend of the Brenners, becoming one of the early casualties.


This movie has been one of my favorite since I was a little girl, and will always give me the chills. Of course looking at it now, to be afraid of it is quite silly. The special effects were very advanced for the time but now in 2011, it seems kind of homemade compared to what we're used to seeing in movies. However, I will never forget being so afraid of this film but also intrigued. It wasn't extremely gorey (just a little, especially for a young girl) but it was more suspenseful and exciting. What was going to happen next? And the character of Melanie was just so beautiful and glamourous even throughout such a scary experience.

Melanie's beautiful blonde hair, extremely pulled together dresses and suit jackets with her delicate features and perfect accessories, made her the classic Hitchcock leading lady.


Here are examples of how The Birds impacted fashion:

model Kate Peck in a Birds inspired Australian fashion editorial
even Barbie has joined in on The Birds look!
Spanish fashion editorial

bottega veneta spring 2011 campaign

Here is my styling interpretation of The Birds:



The Birds

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