The “Curse” Of The Couture

In less than 30 minutes, bidding ends for Carrie Bradshaw's famous blue taxidermied headpiece. Can a dead bird really make bad things happen?

This week I had an adventure heading up to Sotheby’s to see Diana’s Black Sheep sweater in person. I wrote about it here when the auction opened for bidding because I sort of felt the same way about it as I did when Joan’s Things went up for auction, too.

I remember during Joan’s auction at Stair Galleries, one of the most coveted pieces from her collection was her writing desk. I knew of a few writer friends who were vying for it. I couldn’t blame them, of course…if you were a writer and had an extra $50k sitting around, wouldn’t you want to sit down to type every day at a desk that intimately collaborated on 26 award-winning books?

But what if the secondhand thing in question, aka: a vintage taxidermied Bird of Paradise headpiece, from the 1800s that is now up for grabs and is most intimately tied to something else? Like being left at the altar. Correction: Like Carrie Bradshaw being left at the altar. A few years after that, there was an untimely death on a Peloton, and there are probably a few other unfortunate events, too (pls share in the comments if you recall:). I personally had no idea that Carrie’s extremely famous 200-year-old bird accessory was up for auction at Sotheby’s just one room away from Diana’s sweater. So when I saw it there, I was so surprised that it had no bids.

In fact, as of checking just now—and the bidding for said Bird ends in about an hour—there are STILL no bids. No Bids for the Bird!

I took to my Stories about it yesterday, and as is such with 200 year-old fashion tied to actual death, people had opinions. Mostly about the headpiece being cursed.