Chanel Hangs 95 Birds; Kelly Wearstler Perches One on Glassware

Chanel's Spring 2027 show sent models down a runway beneath 95 wood-and-paper illuminated bird sculptures. The scenography came from Richard Peduzzi, working with artistic director Matthieu Blazy. The staging marks the loudest signal yet that bird decor has returned to the center of the design conversation.

The timing is pointed. This month, singer Kelly Clarkson tried to buy an animatronic bird in Brooklyn and set off a public dispute that put birds, once again, at the top of the design discourse.

Julian Casablancas has not weighed in. Julianne Moore effectively has. In a recent Open Door home tour of her New York apartment, the actor showed a ceramic egg holder by the French ceramics studio Four, topped with a miniature vintage bird figurine, a gift from her mother.

"She knows that I love birds," Moore said. She cited the egg holder as an example of how "details really really matter" in her compact space.

Viewers fixated on the object. Sample comments from the tour: "Haven't been able to think about anything all day" and "Oh to be cradled by the Julianne Moore egg tower." It ranked among the most commented-upon aspects of her home.

When did birds last rule design?

Not since 2011, when Etsy-era craft culture met Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's "put a bird on it" sketch on Portlandia, have avian motifs loomed so large. The sketch mocked the trend. The current wave appears to be earnest.

November brings the launch of Kelly Wearstler's Perch collection with Serax. The line of glass vases, bowls and dishes features a baby bird perched atop each piece.

"There's something poetic about a bird that has just arrived," Wearstler has said of the collection. "It asks you to slow down, to be present."

Are birds for everyone?

No, according to Allene Little, co-founder of the New York residential design firm Kaufman Little.

"You learn early on in a project whether clients are pro-bird or anti-bird," Little said. Even apart from the ruffled feathers in Brooklyn, birds in design can polarize.

Her partner, Suze Kaufman Freedman, sits firmly in the pro-bird camp. Decorating her own apartment in Brooklyn Heights, Freedman considered avian-inspired wallpapers ranging from de Gournay to Lulu and Georgia. Her inspiration came from Alberto Giacometti's plaster albatrosses at the Jean Royere auction at Christie's.

"I wanted something that would bring that sense of whimsy," Freedman explained.

She did not bid on the Giacomettis. Instead she found papier-mache birds in a West Elm catalog, designed for a nursery.

"They were designed for a nursery, but the color made them perfect for a more sophisticated space," Freedman recalled. "And I think they were like $45."

Her art hanger mounted the birds on silver prongs in a corner of her living room. Fanciful, whimsical, and considerably cheaper than a Giacometti, they carry her point: one may set one's heart on a particular piece of bird decor without needing to get worked up about it.

What does this change for buyers?

The shift is practical. Bird motifs now span the full price ladder, from $45 West Elm figures to de Gournay wallpaper to Chanel's runway scenography. Designers will keep asking clients the pro-bird question early. As the design world sees it, there are always other birds in the sky.