Rodarte sisters inspired by birds

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Laura and Kate Mulleavy have confessed it was birds that first inspired them for doing fashion. The idea came after watching 1963 horror movie ‘The Birds’, which sees an American town besieged by the creatures with wings.

To be precise, it was a movie scene which involves the main character Melanie Daniels (starred by Tippi Hedren) being attacked by a flock of birds.

Kate comments:

Everyone in fashion loves Tippi wearing that green suit in ‘The Birds’, but we love the suit after she has been pecked.’

The girls wouldn’t have stepped into the fashion world if their parents hadn’t helped them. They assisted a lot in developing the unusual style and supported the daughters on every stage of their fashion career. The sisters say they could never have launched their label in 2005 without their family’s support.

Kate explained:

To our parents’ eternal credit, they didn’t bat an eyelid when we told them that we weren’t going to go straight out and get jobs after graduating.’

Laura added:

Not that they’re hippies. But our parents have never been the types to say, ‘Well, if you want to get to C you have to go via A and B.’

Despite the fact Rodarte’s flesh-flashing designs are extremely popular with public and some celebrities, including Kate Bosworth, Kirsten Dunst and Cate Blanchett, the Mulleavy sisters rarely wear their own creations themselves.

Dresses are ‘hard’ to wear for Laura, and Kate says their goal is not to wear the latest pieces but change the shape of American fashion.

The girl said in the interview for Britain’s Independent newspaper: