The style-savvy character that Sarah Jessica Parker first brought to life on the HBO show in 1998 memorably wore a tutu on the street (in the opening credits!), a naked dress (before it became a red carpet trend), that Dolce & Gabbana coat that she wore with underwear as she became “fashion roadkill,” her so-called Revenge Dress and so much more. Still, the bird headpiece she debuted in the first SATC movie in 2008, and which will soon go up for auction at Sotheby’s, stood out.
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Parker told TV Insider in June that wearing the ensemble again was “amazing. And it was a nice challenge to figure out what it would be this time around. It was nice to give it some poetry that was happy.”
Although the headpiece itself required some extremely delicate handling. Series costume designers Danny Santiago and Molly Rogers told Entertainment Weekly in June that the feather had come from a vintage hat and was more than a century old the first time they used it.
Santiago was “scared to death” of it, he said. “I was like, let’s make a stunt-double blue bird and just use that one because you’re pinning it into a hairdo for hours.”
The headpiece carries an estimate of $40,000 to $70,000 in Sotheby’s event, its inaugural Fashion Icons auction, where its listed alongside pieces worn by the likes of Princess Diana, Michelle Obama and Madonna.
Even with all that star power, Cynthia Houlton, the global head of fashion and accessories at Sotheby’s, says the item stands out.
“It’s pretty amazing in terms of the colors, the feathers, just the condition of it,” she says. “But up close, it is a taxidermied bird, it’s not just feathers.”
In fact, she notes, it is — or at least was — an actual Bird of Paradise.
The auction house’s Houlton explains that the buyer for such a piece will likely fit into the category of either museums, high net-worth individuals and collectors or investors. “They see these pieces as having value and they’re looking to acquire them because they want to have a diversified portfolio,” she says.
Online bids open Thursday, Aug. 31 and run through Thursday, Sept. 14. But even those who aren’t putting in a bid can see the bird headpiece and the other items as part of a public exhibition from Thursday, Sept. 7 to Wednesday, Sept. 13 at Sotheby’s New York in New York City.