sign in sign up
<<
Home , Chatham rail, Great Auk, Isabella Blow, Mascarene parrot, North Island piopio, Philip Treacy

Part 2 Contents

6 The Fashion Trade And 4

6:1 Why Do Wear ? 4

6:2 A Lesson From The Past 5

6:3 A Short History Of Hats 9

6:4 The Call For Conservation 11

6:5 Modern Hats 13

6:6 Louis Mariette Profile 15

6:7 Profile 17

6:8 As Dead As A ! 20

7 Conservation And Zoos 26

7:1 What Zoos Do 26

7:2 Why Zoos Are Important 27

7:3 How Zoos Are Organized 29

7:4 What The Future Holds 30

7:5 How Does Lotherton Bird Garden help to save threatened ? 40

7:6 What You Can Do To Save The Planet 47

8 The Power Of Inspiration 56

8:1 Birds As Symbols Of Power And Freedom 56

8:2 Birds In Religion 60 8:3 Birds In Myths And Legends 62

8:4 Birds In Art And Sculpture 65

8:5 Jewelled Birds 68

8:6 Fabric Designs Inspired By Birds 69

The front page photo is of Nike of Samothrace, the third century BC marble sculpture of the Greek Goddess Nike. Since 1884 it has stood at the top of one of the magnificent staircases in the Louvre and is one of the most well known sculptures in the world.

6 The Fashion Trade and Birds

The history of humans wearing bird skins and probably goes back to prehistory. Some of the oldest cave paintings discovered show images of birds as part of hunting rituals.

From the time that someone found a fallen and stuck it in their hair, to the development of formal headwear that denoted sophisticated status, the history of birds in fashion is really also the entire history of art, body decoration and social history.

6:1 Why Do Humans Wear Hats? People wear hats for lots of reasons; for protection against impact, cold, heat, snow and rain, against sunburn and sunstroke, dust and contaminants, for religious reasons, medical reasons, for modesty or social convention, to disguise baldness, as a mark of office or distinction and for decoration or fashion.

In many cultures the head is viewed as the most important part of the body, and therefore should be protected and respected. This derives from the belief, held in many parts of the world that the head is where the soul or spirit resides. From a practical point of view it is where four of the five senses are situated and needs a generally acceptable social system of protocols to ensure it doesn’t get damaged.

Headdresses are therefore often an important part of both daily and ceremonial wear because they draw attention to this key area.

Feathers are acquired by rearing birds for their feathers, through trade or by hunting. The production of headdresses is often expensive and labour-intensive and the finished items are too delicate for daily use. Feathers are therefore more of a status-symbol, worn on ceremonial or ritual occasions. This Blackfoot headdress includes eagle feathers.

Feathered headpieces are worn by various Native North American and South American indigenous peoples, such as the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia as a sign of their status and sacred knowledge. The green headdress on the right was worn by Montezuma II the Aztec (Mexica) ruler.

Some birds are hunted for both meat and feathers, whilst others – including , raptors, and carrion eaters – are hunted primarily for feathers and may or may not be eaten or even killed. Often, birds are reared for their feathers. The young of some birds are captured, raised in the village, and used as an ongoing source of feathers, which grow back on the birds after being plucked.

Birds tamed in this way include parrots, macaws, , guans, toucans, and rheas. Care has to be taken not to over pluck the birds, as this would kill them. On the right is a picture of Montezuma’s headdress. On the left is a traditional Sioux ceremonial bonnet made of eagle feathers tipped with horse hair and adorned with ermine, all wrapped in red trade cloth and attached to a rabbit-skin cap edged with a glass bead headband.

The Hawaiian Mamo – in the Hawaiian Honeycreeper family – shown here on the left, became extinct in 1899. The bird was one of the most honored of the birds in Hawaiian society. In fact it was held in such honor that the orange- yellow feathers of this bird were used to create capes and hats that were used by royalty. This was one of the reasons why the bird had diminished.

The famous yellow cloak of Kamehameha I was estimated to have taken the reigns of eight monarchs and the golden feathers of 80,000 birds before it was completed.

The American Ornithologists Union, founded in 1883, was already aware of the dangers facing many birds in the United States. There were however influential ornithologists who defended the collection of birds. In 1902 Charles B Cory, the president elect of the AOU refused to attend a meeting of the District of Columbia Audubon Society stating that "I do not protect birds. I kill them.”

Birds in the US were threatened by hunting for sport as well as for the fashion industry. Pressure from shooting enthusiasts was intense.

6:2 A Lesson From The Past The Great was found very extensively on islands off eastern Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Ireland and Britain before being hunted to . Remains have been found in that suggests the Great Auk may have wintered there up to the 14th century.

They were believed to have had a life span of about 20 to 25 years. These flightless birds reacted to noises, but were rarely scared by the sight of something unusual, like seeing humans. They did not see us as a threat.

The Great Auk stood about 75 – 85 cm tall (30 – 33 inches), weighed 5 kilos or 11 lbs and was an excellent swimmer, using its to propel itself underwater. These great birds were capable of banking, veering, and turning underwater. The Great Auk was known to dive to depths of 76 meters (250 ft) and it has been claimed to be able to dive to 1 kilometer (3,300 ft). It could also hold its breath for 15 minutes which is longer than a seal can go without breathing. They were capable of swimming so rapidly and gaining such speed that they could shoot out of the water and land on nearby rocky ledges above sea level, much as some other do.

Great were thought to mate for life, laying only one each year between late May and early June. The pair shared incubation for the six weeks before the egg hatched, typically in late June then took it in turns to feed the chick, which after two or three weeks was mature enough to abandon the nest and go into the water.

Great Auk have been found at fire sites which date to 100,000 BC. Carvings of the bird have been identified on the walls of El Pinto Cave in Spain and in paintings in the Grotte Cosquer in . Someone buried at the site at Port au Choix in Newfoundland 2000BC was buried in a ceremonial suit made from more than 200 Great Auk skins, with the heads left attached as decoration.

The Great Auk was hunted on a large scale for food, , and down feathers, which were used to stuff pillows. It made quite decent eating as well, especially for sailors that had not had any fresh meat for weeks. Some of the later vessels anchored next to a colony, ran out planks to the land and then herded hundreds of the Auks onto the ships, where they were clubbed to death.

By the mid-1500s, the nesting colonies along the European side of the Atlantic were nearly all eliminated by individuals killing this bird for its down. In 1553, the auk received its first official protection, and in 1794 London banned the killing of this species for their feathers. On the North American side, down was initially preferred, but once the were nearly driven to extinction in the 1770s, down collectors switched to the auk. Specimens of the Great Auk and its eggs became collectible and highly prized, and this contributed to the demise of the species.

It was on the islet of Stac an Armin, St. Kilda in Scotland, in July 1840, that the last Great Auk in Britain was caught and killed. A man in his mid 70’s from St Kilda told of how he and his father- in-law with another man had caught a "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, and then killed it by beating it with a stick, apparently because they believed it to be a witch.

The last colony of Great Auks in existence lived on Geirfuglasker or "Great Auk Rock" off Iceland. This islet was a volcanic rock surrounded by cliffs which made it inaccessible to humans, but in 1830 the islet submerged, and the birds moved to the nearby island of Eldey, which was accessible from a single side. When the colony was initially discovered in 1835, nearly fifty birds were resident. Museums wanting skins of the auk for preservation and display, quickly began collecting birds from this colony.

The last pair, found incubating an egg, were killed there on 3rd June 1844. An egg collector wanted to ensure that his collection would rise in value, by paying three men to kill the last of the birds. Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangled the adults and Ketill Ketilsson smashed the last ever Great Auk egg with his boot.

During one week in the spring of 1897, nature writer Florence Merriam said that she had seen 2,600 robins for sale in one market stall in Washington alone. By the turn of the century, the sale of bird flesh was never greater. The second equally great threat to the bird population was the desire for their . In the late 1890s the American Ornithologists' Union estimated that five million birds were killed annually for the fashion market. In the final quarter of the 19th century, plumes, and even whole birds, decorated the hair, hats, and dresses of women.

But public opinion soon turned on the fashion industry. Bolstered by the support of hunter/naturalist President Theodore Roosevelt, who was an avowed Audubon Society sympathizer, and a widespread letter-writing campaign driven by church associations, many of whom distributed the Audubon message in their various newsletters, the plume trade was ultimately eradicated by such laws as the New York State Audubon Plumage Law (1910), which banned the sales of plumes of all native birds in the state.

The commercial farming of first began in the 1850s when pioneering farmers in South Africa saw great economic potential in the harvesting of feathers. Horse drawn open carriages made large feathered hats fashionable. Ostrich feathers are some of the most intricate and dramatic in the world so it was logical to use them in this way. During the late 19th and early 20th century, ostrich farmers made a fortune. However, the good times were brought to an end by the arrival of the motor car, itself a much more prestigious status symbol than a big . Sitting in a low-roofed vehicle wearing a big hat was virtually impossible and the style died out within twenty years. The future of the ostrich industry looked very grim indeed, until someone invented a way of tanning ostrich skins.

In 1945 the Klein Karoo region near Oudtshoorn set up a cooperative of farmers and speculators who worked together to re-build the ostrich industry. In 1963/64 the world's first ostrich abattoir was erected in Klein Karoo to supply dried and fresh ostrich meat locally. The marketing of ostrich skin started in 1969/1970 when a leather tannery was built near the abattoir. Arnold and Dianne de Jager, founders of a tannery in London offered to train a tanner for Klein Karoo. In 1970, the first ostrich skin tannery opened in Klein Karoo. The company is still the world leader in the market today.

Ostrich leather was instantly popular in high fashion () throughout and the United States where it was used for cowboy boots. Notably, during the 1980s, demand was extremely high in the US and trade continued despite trade sanctions over apartheid. it is one of the strongest commercial leathers in the world and has led to ostrich leather being seen as a luxury item. The average size of a prepared ostrich skin which can be used with success in most applications is around 16 square feet. Traditionally, fashion has driven the demand for ostrich leather. Fashion houses have used it in handbags for many years. Handbags in Ostrich leather are extremely popular as many luxury designers such as Prada, Hermes, Bottega Veneta and Gucci continue to use exotic skins. Louis Vuitton also uses ostrich skins, especially part of their runway collections. Although such items are not cheap, women want them simply because they are beautiful and different.

Most designer brands have at least one purse made with ostrich leather. The cost for most items is usually between $500 to $5000; handbags and jackets cost the most due to the sheer amount of leather used.

In North America there has been a noticeable decline in the number of Golden and Bald Eagles in the last 150 years. The main threat is which by the late 19th century had driven Golden Eagles from some regions they used to inhabit. In the 20th century, the chemicals used in organo- chloride pesticides and herbicides and heavy metal poisoning killed many birds, but tighter regulations on pollution have reduced this decline. Within the U.S., the Golden Eagle is legally protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

On the left is a picture of a Bald Eagle, emblem of the United States of America. Many northern tribes used to collect feathers from these birds, but they were revered for their strength and power and were not hunted.

Fantastic headdresses are worn by many Pacific island cultures and some wear certain items as status symbols once they have killed an enemy in battle.

The wearing of headdresses is particularly common in Papua where there are a multitude of designs for different occasions.

These headdresses are usually made out of vegetation, but designs often include bird of paradise feathers, including those from the highly sought-after King of Saxony bird. The power associated with the headdresses in Papua New Guinea is phenomenal, perhaps stirred by the amount of work and craftsmanship that has gone into each piece.

Like the Papua New Guineans, New Zealand Māori wore feathered headdresses to symbolize power. The now extinct had feathers that were highly prized, with chiefs wearing white- tipped huia feathers to symbolize power over chiefs wearing monotone feathers.

Huia feathers were revered as "taonga" or treasures by Māori and later on by European settlers. Huia feathers were often grouped in twos and were usually accompanied by a kiwi feather cloak.

Maori traditionally believe that kiwi are under the protection of Tane Mahuta, god of the forest. Kiwi feathers are used for kahu-kiwi ceremonial cloaks.

Today, while kiwi feathers are still used, they are gathered from kiwi that die naturally or through road accidents or predation, and Māori no longer hunt kiwi, but consider themselves their guardians.

For 2,000 years, the Chinese have been using the iridescent blue feathers of kingfishes as an inlay for fine art objects and adornment, from hairpins, headdresses, and fans to even panels and screens. While Western art collectors have focused on other areas of Chinese art including porcelain, lacquer ware, sculpture, cloisonne, silk and paintings, kingfisher art is relatively unknown outside of China.

Called tian-tsui (点翠, “dotting with kingfishers”), kingfisher feathers are painstakingly cut and glued onto gilt silver. The effect is like cloisonné, but no enamel was able to rival the electric blue color. Blue is the traditional favourite colour in China.

As with most iridescent, electrifying colours in such as butterfly wings, the intense color in bird feathers comes not from pigments in the feather itself, but from the way light is bent and reflected back out, much like a prism breaks white light into its spectrum of rainbow colours. These microscopic structures in feathers are called photonic crystals.

The most expensive, commissioned pieces used a species of kingfisher from Cambodia. So great was the demand, that the trade of feathers may have been a major contributor to the wealth of the Khmer Empire, and used to help fund the construction of the magnificent temples near Siem Reap, Cambodia including Anqkor Wat. The finest pieces of kingfisher art were reserved for royalty or high-ranking Chinese government official (called a “mandarin bureaucrat"). Sadly, the usage of kingfisher feathers resulted in the mass slaughter of many kingfisher species.

Kingfisher art as a high art form came to an end during the Chinese Revolution in the 1940’s.

All the above are examples of head ware made for tribal people by tribal people. The biggest impact on species and numbers of birds has been the international trade in bird feathers and skins for the mass market – the fashion industry.

6:3 A Short History of Hats

It was in the late seventeenth century that women's headgear began to emerge in its own right and not be influenced by men's hat fashions. The word 'milliner', “a maker of women's hats”, was first recorded in 1529 when the term referred to the products for which Milan and the northern Italian regions were well known, i.e. ribbons, gloves and straws. The haberdashers who imported these highly popular straws were called 'Millaners' from which the word was eventually derived.

By the mid 1800's Swiss and Italian straws, together with imitation straws made from paper, cardboard, grass and horsehair were available to women, along with the introduction of velvet and tulle.

During the first half of the nineteenth century the bonnet dominated women's fashion, becoming very large with many ribbons, flowers, feathers and gauze trims giving an appearance of even greater size. By the end of the century, although bonnets were still prevalent, many other styles were to be found, including wide brims with flat crowns, the flower pot and the toque - feathers and veils abounded.

Huge broad-brimmed hats were worn in the middle of the 19th century, trimmed with masses of feathers and occasionally complete stuffed birds (male hummingbirds for those who could afford them), or decorated with ribbons and artificial flowers. Masses of wavy hair were fashionable, swept up to the top of the head, set over horsehair pads called "rats" and gathered into a knot. Large hats were worn with evening wear. During the last quarter of the 19th century, feather decorations on hats, fans and boas reached a peak. Women decorated their hats with wings, and often whole birds. In the early 1900's most hats were enormous and adorned with flowers, feathers, ribbons and tulle, but within twenty years, big hats became a thing of the past.

By the end of the decade, hats had smaller drooping brims that shaded the face and deep crowns, and the overall top-heavy effect remained.

An 1875 edition of Harpers Bazar illustrated the merle or blackbird as a favourite, or for those who could afford it, the merle bronze, a blue-bronze coloured Brazilian blackbird that leant an air of the exotic to the wearer. The whole bird was artfully mounted on wires and springs to give bounce and animation to the birds head and wings.

A more economic version had grey swallows or the heads of spotted pigeons, which were easier to come by, or mounted pieces from the breasts of peacocks, iridescent green cockerels or pheasants.

Arrangements of ostrich feathers projected outwards from the hat onto the crown and left to curl naturally created a soft alluring “bobbing” motion as the woman rode or walked along.

Many saw this fashion craze as cruel, but despite this the plume trade became big business. To satisfy the worldwide demand for feathers, ostrich farms became an overnight industry. Herons began to be taken from with wild for their soft grey plumes.

By the mid 1920's, women's hair had become much shorter with the shingle cut. The cloche hat, which hugged the head like a helmet with a very small brim became the new fashion.

The main reason for the shift to smaller hats was the effect of the development of the “motorised carriage”. By 1920 men like Henry Ford in America, Rolls-Royce in Britain and Andre Citroen were making affordable cars for “the people”. It was impossible to get into and out of a car with the roof up, wearing a big hat and the car was a much more impressive status symbol.

The “Spirit of Ecstacy” or “Flying Lady” mounted on the front hoods of Rolls-Royce cars epitomises this era. It is one of the most well known motor car mascots in the world. Designed by Charles Robinson Sykes, The Spirit of Ecstasy has topped radiators of Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1911.

This wonderful mascot was modelled on Eleanor Velasco Thornton, secretary to John Walter Edward-Scott-Montagu. It was considered that she was socially beneath him and so they could not marry. Only their closest friends knew about the relationship, which remained a secret for over ten years, principally because both lovers acted with the utmost discretion. John Scott- Montague, heir to his father's title, was a pioneer of the automobile in England. From 1902 he edited "The Car" magazine. A member of this circle of friends was the sculptor Charles S Sykes. Lord Montagu ordered the creation of a special mascot for his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The small statue depicted a young woman in fluttering robes having placed one forefinger to her lips. The sculptor had chosen Eleanor Thornton as model for this figurine, which was christened "The Whisper". 6:4 The Call for Conservation In 1902 the auctions at the London Commercial Sales Room sold 1,608 packages of Heron plumes, weighing around 30 ounces each. Four herons were needed to make one ounce of plumes, which equates to 192,960 herons that died just for this one sale. The illustration above, shows a lady attired for driving in an open-topped automobile. Her hat has a pair of full wings on it, presumably to complement the speed and flight of her new-fangled vehicle.

In 1886, Frank Chapman, an ornithologist from the American Museum of Natural History, wrote a letter to the editor of “Forest and Stream: A Journal of Outdoor Life, Travel, Nature Study, Shooting”. He brought to their attention a list of native birds seen on hats worn by ladies in the streets of New York.

“In view of the fact that the destruction of birds for millin- ery purposes is at present attracting general attention, the appended list of native birds seen on hats worn by ladies in the streets of New York, may be of interest. It is chiefly the result of two late afternoon walks through the uptown shopping districts, and, while very incomplete, still gives an idea of the species destroyed and the relative numbers of each.”

Robin 4 Bluejay 5 Brown Thrush 1 Swallow-tailed Flycatcher 1 Bluebird 3 Kingbird 1 Blackburnion warbler 1 Kingfisher 1 Blackpoll warbler 3 Pileated woodpecker 1 Wilson's black-capped flycatcher 3 Red-headed woodpecker 2 Scarlet tanager 3 Golden-winged 21 woodpecker White-bellied swallow 1 Acadian 1 Bohemian waxwing 1 Carolina dove 1 Waxwing 23 Pinnated 1 Great Northern Shrike 1 Ruffed grouse 2 Pine Grosbeak 1 Quail 16 Snow Bunting 15 Helmet quail 2 Tree Sparrow 2 Sanderling 5 White-throated sparrow 1 Big yellowlegs 1 Bobolink 1 Green heron 1 Meadow Lark 2 Virginia 1 Baltimore Oriole 9 Laughing gull 1 Purple Grackle 5 Common Tern 21 Black Tern 1 Grebe 7

It is evident that, in proportion to the number of hats seen, the given is very small; but in most cases mutilation rendered identification impossible. Thus, while one afternoon 700 hats were counted and on them but 20 birds recognized, 543 were decorated (?) with feathers of some kind. Of the 158 remaining, 72 were worn by young or middle aged ladies and 86 by ladies in mourning or elderly ladies.

Percentage of hats with feathers...... 77 Without feathers...... 10 Without feathers, worn by ladies in mourning or elderly ladies...... 12 (Information from the Victoriana website) Research quoted from “Wings, Breasts & Birds” by Joanne Haug

Changes in dress during the First World War were dictated more by necessity than fashion. More and more women were forced to work as their men folk went to war. Many never came back and women often became the sole breadwinner. They needed clothes that were better suited to their new lives and they borrowed fashions from the male wardrobe. These derived from the shirtwaists and tailored suits. Social events were postponed in favor of more pressing engagements, the privations of rationing, the need to mourn the vast numbers of dead, visits to the wounded and the general gravity of the time meant that darker colours and simpler cuts worked better.

Blacks and greys were the new look. Women set aside the unwieldy underskirts, simplifying and shortening skirts. By 1915, the Gazette due Bon Ton was showing full skirts with hemlines above the ankle. These were called "war crinolines" by the fashion press, who promoted the style as "patriotic" and "practical".

After the First World War, due to the upsurge in available materials and relative wealth, there was suddenly a proliferation of styles and materials, so that many women began to rely on the advice of milliners.

From the 1930's to the 1950's, New York was a magnet for European immigrants and it become the world's leading millinery city, with department stores such as Sacs, Fifth Avenue, Henri Bendel and Bergdorf Goodman leading the way with their own millinery workrooms. When the Second World War started in 1939, few had the access to a variety of fabrics and feathers. War-time austerity and rationing meant it was mainly the trims which were changed, with women making do with turbans made from pre-war materials.

By the 1950's the arrival of ready-to-wear clothes heralded a turn-down for milliners. During the Second World War women who had not previously worked got jobs. After the War, many wanted to keep them. Working women no longer had much time or energy to spend on being fashionable.

In the 1960's the hat was once again overtaken by wigs and hairdressers, who coloured, back- combed and sprayed women's hair into exotic 'sculptures'. People dressed less formally and the wearing of hats took another tumble.

The picture on page 13 by Michel Bernanau taken in 1968, of the actress Bigitte Bardot in a see-through cocktail dress, shows that fashion like this needs no hat, but she is still wearing an ostrich feather boa.

In the 1980's and 90's there was a revival of interest in women's millinery. This was instigated, to a large extent, by public figures like the late Princess of Wales, who wore very stylish hats. 6:5 Modern Hats

One of the biggest showcases for modern hat design is to be found at Royal Ascot. This international racing event draws crowds from royalty and lords and ladies to ordinary people who love the drama of the races and the socialising, “dressing up” and “showing off” that goes with the show.

These pictures are from 2008’s Ascot Ladies Day. The hat on the left has no feathers in it. It is made of fabric and matches the dress.

The hat with the big plumes is made from tail feathers probably taken from the Reeves’s Pheasant.

The male- shown in the foreground on the left, is a brightly plumaged bird with a scaled golden white and red body plumage, grey legs, and brown iris with red skin around the eye.

Reeves’s Pheasants have white heads with a black narrow band across the eyes. The male has an extremely long silvery white tail barred with chestnut brown.

This spectacular pheasant is mentioned in the Guinness World Records in 2008 for having the longest natural tail feather of any bird species; a record formerly held by the Crested Argus Pheasant. It can measure up to 2.4 meters or 8 feet long.

The hat on the left has the whole bird on it, but the Crow is stuffed, whereas the hat below looks as though the bird has exploded, blowing feathers everywhere!

On the left is a hat is worn by model and designer Jasmine Guinness which certainly spreads its wings.

On the right a hat designed by Louis Mariette

6:6 Louis Mariette Profile

Malawi born Louis Mariette is inspired by colour and design in nature for his magnificent hats. Influenced by Botswana and Swaziland where he grew up, his website states that …

“his moral philosophy on life is to always respect people and cultures, to educate oneself in understanding people and celebrate each others differences”. Mariette stands for style, elegance and glamour.

This picture on the right is “Princess Neptune Underwater” an iconic image showing what can be achieved by combining the theme of the piece of millinery with the environment that best sets it off.

Louis Mariette also made this hat, with the whole head of a stuffed Thomson’s gazelle on it.

What do you think of it as a piece of millinery, or as a fashion statement? This item is extremely thought-provoking and may lead you to a number of conclusions.

Mariette’s website states that “nature was his playground and (he) would spend many an hour exploring endless species of flora and fauna with a passion for colour and sparkle. He would collect semi-precious stones, seed pods, cactus flowers, and beads and trimmings from local tribes.

He was mesmerised by bird feathers, such as an explosion of iridescent colours from a lilac breasted roller as it darted after prey. Louis also recognised the incredible palette of colours and textures to be found in beetles, butterflies and dragonflies – a dazzling assault on his senses. Such depths of curiosity and inspiration are brought to life through his designs today.”

Mariette is obviously inspired by nature, but what do you think of his “Spirit of Africa” piece?

Thomson’s Gazelles are not an endangered species. Neither are the butterflies used in the hat on the left.

This Papillon hat (papillon is French for “butterfly”) is another example of Mariette’s inspiration from nature, captured by the wearer having a cloud of butterflies around her head. Anyone who has been lucky enough to travel to forests in South America, to see these fabulous creatures in the wild, or who has stood entranced in a Butterfly House, will know the magic of seeing such a spectacle.

There are eighty species of Blue Morpho butterflies in the world today. They are forest dwellers but will venture into sunny clearings to warm themselves. Males are territorial and will chase rivals. The people along the Rio Negro in Brazil used to exploit their territorial behaviour by luring them into clearings with bright blue decoys. The collected butterfly wings were used as embellishment for ceremonial masks.

The adults live for about a month. The commoner Blue Morpho butterfly is reared en masse in commercial breeding programmes. The iridescent wings are used in the manufacture of jewellery and as inlay for woodworked items. Papered specimens are sold with the abdomen removed to prevent its oily contents from staining the wings.

Large quantities of live specimens are exported as pupae from several neo-tropical countries for exhibition in butterfly houses. Due to their irregular flight pattern and size, their wings are frequently damaged when in captivity, but with a total life span of less than five months, from egg to adult, it is considered acceptable to export more.

6:7 Philip Treacy Profile

Another millinery artist inspired by natural forms is Philip Treacy.

Surreal and sculptural in his approach, Philip Treacy makes hand-made hats that are feats of craftsmanship. Born in rural Ireland in 1967, Treacy designs haute couture and ready-to- wear hat collections from his London studio. He has also created hats for the couture collections of , Valentino and Alexander McQueen.

Treacy grew up in , a tiny village in the west of Ireland where his parents owned a baker’s shop. He made hats for his sister’s dolls from the feathers shed by his mother’s chickens and .

“My mother had a sewing machine. I was never allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going up and down joining fabric together that I’d use it when my mother went out to feed the chickens. There was like five minutes to get it out. I’d lift the machine out which weighed a ton, lift the lid off which made a lot of noise, whirl the things which made a lot of noise. If my mother found me I was in a lot of trouble. I used it to make clothes for my sister’s dolls. I couldn’t care less for the dolls but I could make the clothes really easily. I was making bust points before I knew what a bust point was.”

Philip’s sister was the only member of the family who encouraged his interest in fashion although the others didn’t discourage him. “I remember one day being in a neighbour’s house and he said to my father: ‘Don’t you think it weird that this boy is making dress for dolls.’ And my father said: ‘Whatever makes him happy.’ You have got to see where I come from to understand how profound that was. For a person of his generation it was very unusual.

”In 1985, Treacy left school and went to to study fashion and made hats “as a hobby” to go with the outfits he produced for the course. “Nobody really had much time for the hats because it was a fashion school, but there did come a point when I was more interested in making the hat than the outfits.” As work experience, he spent six weeks with , the London hat designer, and when he interviewed for the fashion design course at the Royal College of Art in London in 1988, he mentioned his hats. The RCA was planning to set up a hat course. “I became their guinea pig. After one day I said to my tutor Shelagh Brown: ‘What should I do? Should I make hats or clothes?’ She said: ‘Make hats.’ As a student project, Treacy made Ascot hats for Harrods department store. Claire Stubbs, its fashion director, hailed him in as “the next great British hat maker”. Treacy took his hats to show Michael Roberts, fashion director of magazine, and his style editor . “What a beauty!” recounted Blow. “It was a green felt hat cut like the jaws of a crocodile with jaggedy teeth… a lot like Concorde –streamlined, sleek, so exciting. I thought: ‘This is major. I’ve never seen felt cut like this.’” Blow was soon to be married and, having chosen a Medieval theme for her wedding dress, she tracked down Treacy and asked him to make her head-dress. “I wanted to base the hat on a 1930s play called The Miracle which Lady Diana Cooper was in,” remembered Treacy. “I suggested to Issy that maybe this would be good for a wedding. I couldn’t believe that I’d hit upon the one person who didn’t expect tulle and veiling and pearls and that for her wedding hat.”

Taking Treacy under her , Isabella Blow introduced him to established designers like Manolo Blahnik and Rifat Ozbek, as well as fashion editors such as Andre Leon Talley of US Vogue. When Philip left the Royal College in 1990, he moved into the basement of Blow’s house and set up a studio there. “Issy was living upstairs with her resident hat-maker in the basement working away all night long coming up with the goodies. Suddenly all these wild people pitched up at all hours of the night to try on hats. Issy and I were like Harold and Maude trekking around London in a car… we’d go to an exhibition, we’d go and get books, we’d go and have a drink. All the talk was of hats.”

Treacy was summoned to to meet Karl Lagerfeld, chief designer at . “I was 23 and I’d just left school, I didn’t know whether to call him Mr Lagerfeld or whatever. I was totally intimidated by that whole scenario, but Issy was exactly herself. She just walked in to the house of Chanel and said: ‘We’d like some tea please.’” Not only did Treacy make the hats for Chanel that season, but Lagerfeld based his couture collection on the white net bubble hat with a black silk chiffon scarf that Isabella was wearing that day.

At the time hats were long out of fashion. “Hats were associated with old ladies and I thought that was crazy,” said Treacy. “Everyone has a head so everyone has a possibility to wear a hat and you feel good in a hat. People feel better for wearing them. I totally disagreed with the perception of hats at the time and I thought: ‘I’ll change that.’”

He not only made hats fantastical – his creations for Isabella Blow ranged from The Ship, a replica 18th century sailing ship with full rigging and The Castle based on Blow’s ancestral home at Doddington Park and Prince Ludwig of Bavaria’s palace, to Gilbert & George, a surreal concoction of pink and green lacquered ostrich feathers and a mortar board so wide that Isabella couldn’t fit through the door of the charity event she had ordered it for – he also lightened their structure so they sat more comfortably on the head. “You know that scenario where roses are red, leaves are green, I love arguing that. ‘Why should they be?’. I hate rules and formulas. That’s so boring. It’s the opposite of creativity. Rules are ridiculous things that are meant to be broken.”

As well as Chanel, Treacy has made couture hats for Valentino, Gianni and Alexander McQueen at . “Having studied fashion design it helped me greatly when I started working with designers because I understood how the clothes draped or moved and the proportions. What I didn’t understand as a student was that fashion isn’t clothes, fashion is much more interesting than that, it’s a feeling and a mood – not dress-making.”

The designer was approached last week about making the hat, and after receiving pictures of SJP’s Alexander McQueen pistachio dress he started noting ideas.

Treacy then met with Parker for an hour on Sunday and a London hotel to discuss the hat. She tried on some different hat shapes and “found the one she loved,” says Farnell-Watson. After the meeting, Treacy worked for two days straight and “very late into the night”, adorning the headpiece with peacock feathers he got from McQueen, which were used as trim on her dress.

Parker first saw the finished hat about two hours before the premiere.

“Quite brave of her,” says Farnell-Watson. “It’s the most beautiful crazy hat and it’s so great that she wore a hat to a British premiere. The hat is such a quintessentially English idea, but it was done in such a Carrie Bradshaw way.”

Designers like Louis Mariette and Philip Treacey have re-invented the hat as an item of not just fashion, but art and sculpture and their pieces make a stunning cultural statement.

6:8 As Dead As A Dodo!

This list includes the most well-known of birds that have died out as a direct or indirect consequence of disturbance by humans, destruction of habitat, from hunting by humans for food, the pet trade and the fashion trade.

The information for this list was taken from the Wikipedia website and refers only to birds that have become extinct since the year 1500 AD a point in history at which birds were beginning to be subject to scientific study.

Since the year 1500, over 190 species of birds have become extinct and this rate of extinction is increasing. A prime example is the island of Hawaii where 30% of all known recently extinct bird groups originally lived. Other areas, such as the island of Guam, have also been hit hard; Guam has lost over 60% of its native bird groups in the last 30 years, many of them due to the introduced Brown Tree Snake. Some of the birds on this list are technically still “critically endangered” rather than “extinct”, but no evidence of them has been found for many years.

There are today just under 10,000 species of birds, with roughly 1,200 under threat of extinction. That’s over 10 per cent of the worlds birds at risk to some degree.

Ostriches and related ratites 1500’s Upland South Island, New Zealand 1830’s King Island Emu King Island, 1822 Kangaroo Island Emu Kangaroo Island, Australia 1827 Ducks, Geese and Korean Crested Shelduck North East Asia 1890’s Reunion Shelduck Reunion, 1690’s Mauritian Shelduck 1695 Amsterdam Island Indian Ocean 1800 Mauritian Duck Mauritius 1690’s Mariana Mallard Mariana Islands 1980’s Finsches Duck New Zealand 1870 Pink-Headed Duck Eastern India 1945 Réunion Pochard Reunion, Indian Ocean 1690’s Duck North West America 1880 Aukland Islands Merganser South west Pacific 1902 Quails Double-Banded Argus 1871 Pile-Builder New Caledonia 1780’s Viti Levu Viti Levu 1900 Raoul Island Scrubfowl Raoul, Kermadec Islands 1876 New Zealand Quail New Zealand 1875 Himalayan Quail Northern India 1880’s Shorebirds, Gulls and Auks Javanese Lapwing Java 1850’s Tahitian Sandpiper Tahiti 1850’s White-winged Sandpiper 1800’s Eskimo Curlew North America 1980’s Slender-Billed Curlew Siberia 2002 Great Auk North Atlantic 1850’s Canarian Black Oyster-Catcher 1940 Rails, Crakes and Swamphens Antillean Cave Rail Puerto Rico 1912 Hawkins’s Rail 1800’s Mauritius 1700 Rodregues Rail Rodregues, Mauritius 1700’s Bar-Winged Rail 1980 New Caledonian Rail Melanesia 1984 Wake Island Rail Micronesia 1945 Tahiti Rail Tahiti 1900’s Dieffenbach’s Rail Chatham Islands 1850 Vava’u Rail Tonga 1820 Norfolk Island Rail Norfolk Island 1800 Chatham Rail Pacific 1900 Reunion Rail Reunion, Indian Ocean 1690 Ascension Flightless Crake Atlantic 1690 Crake Atlantic 1520 Laysan Rail Hawaiian Islands 1944 Hawaiian Rail Hawaiian Islands 1890 Kosrae Island Crake Carolines 1880 Millers’ Rail Society Islands 1800 Saint Helena Swamphen Atlantic 1550 Lord Howe Swamphen Pacific 1820 Marquesas Swamphen Marquesas Islands 1900 North Island Takahe New Zealand 1894 New Caledonia Swamphen Melanesia 1500 Samoan Wood Rail 1907 Makira Wood Rail Solomon Islands 1950 Tristan Moorhen Atlantic 1890 Mascarene Coot Mauritius & Reunion 1700 Fernando de Noronha Rail Atlantic 1550 Tahitian Goose Tahiti 1790 Marshall Island Bustard Marshall Islands Amsterdam Island Rail Amsterdam Islands 1800 Grebes Colombian Grebe South America 1977 Alaotra Grebe Madagascar 1988 Atitlan Grebe Guatemala 1989 Herons Bermuda Night Heron Atlantic 1600 Reunion Night Heron Reunion, Indian Ocean 1680 Mauritius Night Heron Mauritius 1700 Night Heron Rodrigues 1750 Ascension Night Heron Atlantic 1590 New Zealand Little Bittern New Zealand 1890 Reunion Sacred Ibis Reunion, Indian Ocean 1720 Cormorants Spectacled Cormorant North Pacific 1850 Small Saint Helena Petrel Atlantic 1520’s Bermuda Shearwater Atlantic 1500’s Large Saint Helena Petrel Atlantic 1520 Jamaica Petrel West Indies 1900’s Guadalupe Storm-Petrel Eastern Pacific 1910 Penguins Chatham Islands South West Pacific 1872 Pigeons, Doves & Saint Helena 1500 Passenger Pigeon North America 1914 Bonin Woodpigeon Japan 1890 Ryukyu Woodpigeon Japan 1938 Reunion Pink Pigeon Reunion, Indian Ocean 1700 Rodrigues Turtle Dove Rodrigues 1690 Spotted Green Pigeon Pacific 1851 Sulu Bleeding Heart Pigeon Philippines 1998 Norfolk Island Ground-dove Solomon Islands 1950’s Tanna Ground-dove Vanuatu 1800’s Choiseul Crested Pigeon Solomon Islands 1900’s Red-moustached Fruit-dove Marquesas Islands 1950’s Negros Fruit-dove Philippines 1980’s Mauritius Blue Pigeon 1800’s Rodrigues Grey Pigeon Rodrigues 1750’s Dodo Mauritius 1681 Rodrigues 1730 Parrots New Caledonian Lorikeet Melanesia 1950’s Norfolk Island Kaka Pacific 1851 Society Parakeet Society Islands 1780’s Paradise Parrot Australia 1928 Black-fronted Parakeet Society Islands 1780’s Oceanic Tonga & Vanuatu 1700’s Seychelles 1883 Newton’s Parakeet Rodrigues 1875 Thirioux’s Mauritius 1750’s Mascarene Parrot Reunion, Indian Ocean 1834 Broad-billed Parrot Mauritius 1680 Rodrigues Parrot Rodrigues 1780’s Glaucus Macaw Argentina 1900’s Cuban Red Macaw West Indies 1890’s Carolina Parakeet North America 1920’s Guadeloupe Parakeet West Indies 1780’s Martinique Amazon West Indies 1750’s Guadeloupe Amazon West Indies 1750’s Cuckoos Delalande’s Coua Madagascar 1890’s Saint Helena Cuckoo St. Helena 1700’s Birds of Prey Cuban Kite West Indies 2002 Guadaloupe Caracara Pacific 1903 Reunion Kestrel Reunion, Indian Ocean 1700 Reunion Owl Reunion, Indian Ocean 1690’s Mauritius Owl Mauritius 1850 Rodrigues Owl Rodrigues 1750’s Norfolk Island Boobook Norfolk Island 1996 Laughing Owl New Zealand 1914 Puerto Rican Barn Owl West Indies 1912 Bahaman Barn-Owl Bahamas 1500’s Siau Scops Owl Indonesia 1900’s Nightjars and Nighthawks Jamaican Pauraque West Indies 1890’s Cuban Pauraque West Indies Critical Swifts and Hummingbirds Coppery Thorntail Bolivia Unknown Brace’s Emerald Bahamas 1890’s Gould’s Emerald Jamaica 1890’s Bogota Sunangel Colombia Unknown Turquoise-throated Puffleg Ecuador 1900’s Kingfishers Ryukyu Kingfisher Japan 1890’s Giant Hoopoe Atlantic 1590’s Woodpeckers Imperial Woodpecker Mexico 1990’s Perching Birds - Wrens Stephens Island Wren New Zealand 1895 Bush Wren New Zealand 1972 Antpittas & Antthrushes Tachira Antpitta Venezuela 1956 Honeyeaters, Chats & Bellbirds Kioea Honeyeater Hawaii 1860’s Hawaiian Mamo Hawaii 1930’s Oiahu Mamo Hawaii 1980’s Kaua Mamo Hawaii 1987 Chatham Island Bellbird Pacific 1910 Scrubwrens, Thornbills & Gerygones Lord Howe Gerygone South West Pacific 1930 Whistlers, Shrikethrushes & Pitohuis Mangarevan Whistler Gambier Islands 1890’s Monarchs & Flycatchers Maupiti Monarch Society Islands 1850’s Eiao Monarch Marquesas Islands 1970’s Nuku Heva Monarch Marquesas Islands 1980’s Ua Pou Monarch Marquesas Islands 1986 Guam Flycatcher Marianas Islands 1983 Vangas Short-toed Nuthatch Vanga Madagascar 1950’s Piopios North Island New Zealand 1970 South Island Piopio New Zealand 1960’s New Zealand Wattlebirds Huia New Zealand 1930’s Swallows & Martins White Eyed River Martin Thailand 1988 Red Sea Swallow Middle East 1980’s Megalurid Warblers or Grass Warblers Chatham Island Fernbird New Zealand 1900 Cisticolas Tana River Cisticola Kenya 1970’s White-Eyes Lord Howe White-Eye Pacific 1918 Old World Babblers Black-Browed Babbler Indonesia 1900’s Aldabra Brush-Warbler Indian Ocean 1984 Marsh & Tree Warblers Moorea Reed-Warbler Moorea 1980’s Old World Flycatchers Ruek’s Blue Flycatcher Malaysia 1918 Thrushes Grand Cayman Thrush West Indies 1948 Bonin Thrush Japan 1830’s ‘ Āmaui Hawaii 1850’s Kāma’o Hawaii 1990’s Oloma’o Hawaii 1980’s Kosrae Island Carolines 1850’s Mysterious Starling Cook Islands 1850’s Tasman Starling Norfolk Island 1923 Norfolk Island Starling Norfolk Island 1923 Lord Howe Starling 1919 Pohnpei Starling Micronesia 2000 Bay Starling Society Island 1850 Bourbon Crested Starling Reunion, Indian Ocean 1850’s Caribbean 1780’s Mockingbirds & Thrashers Cozumel Thrasher Caribbean 2005 Waxbills Black-lored Waxbill Congo 1950’s Grackles Slender-billed Grackle Mexico 1910 New World Warblers Bachman’s Warbler USA 1990 Semper’s Warbler Caribbean 1970’s Weavers Reunion Fody Reunion, Indian Ocean 1672 True Finches & Hawaiian Honeycreepers Tawny-headed Mountain Finch China 1980’s Bonin Grosbeak Japan 1830’s ‘ō’ū honeycreeper Hawaii 2000 Lana’I Hookbill Hawaii 1918 Pila’s Palila Hawaii 1730’s Lesser Koa Finch Hawaii 1891 Greater Koa Finch Hawaii 1896 Kona Grosbeak Hawaii 1894 Greater ‘Amakihi Hawaii 1901 Nukupu’u Hawaii 2000 Hawai’i ‘Akialoa Hawaii 1940 Greater ‘Akialoa Hawaii 1969 Kakawahie Hawaii 1990’s ‘Ula-‘ai hawane Hawaii 1937 Black Mamo Hawaii 1907 Hawai’I Mamo Hawaii 1898 Po’o-uli Hawaii 2004 Buntings & American Sparrows Hooded Seedeater Brazil 1900’s Antioquia Brush-finch Colombia 1900’s This list does not include birds that are considered “sub-species”. If these were included, the list would be twice as long.