WILD KINGDOM
Central Park has always been the closest thing to the great outdoors for those of us living in or around NYC. But suddenly, the city and its surrounds feels like a wild kingdom in that nature has become ever more accessible by way of restaurants, fashion and design.


Restaurants have opened with a unique spin on nature, ranging from cute to campy to kitsch. Freeman's Alley on the LES found a niche a couple of years ago with its manly game food and dining room that could double as a taxidermy studio. Aspen is a bar/restaurant that opened in the Flatiron district this past year with a rustic meets modern decor, featuring mounted lucite deer antlers and birch tree flair. Little Owl is a cute little corner restaurant that just opened in the West Village (with a too-expensive wine list, in this humble writer's opinion).


You can't get on a subway without seeing a female sporting a bird-patterned skirt, shirt, or bag. The esteemed women's clothing boutique, "Bird", just expanded from Park Slope and opened a branch on Smith St. in Boerum Hill. Coincidence? I think not.


Additionally, Daily candy just this morning sent out a blurb about the "Hunter and The Hunted" collection of unisex jewelry from Digby & Iona, composed of "leaping stags, deer, and men poised with raised guns".


At the DUMBO Furniture Fair and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javitz Center, both this past spring, a kind of naturalistic, knobby, "I was just in the forest but now I am not" wood style predominated.


In the September '06 issue of Martha Stewart Living, there is a segment about "Faux Bois". It goes: Discover Faux Bois: Martha loves faux bois, which is French for "false wood"—a fitting name for items that appear plucked from the forest but are actually made of cast stone, cast iron, or cement, or are painted to have a woodsy look. Although earthy and rustic, faux bois makes a splendid match for polished pieces. This pail, made of concrete, is dainty enough to hold a lady's slipper orchid.

So what is this mean? Where is it coming from? I don't know. Ironic reaction to the avian flu epidemic? Latent empathy for the semi-famed Pale Male and Lola? A kitschy extension of the white trash, truck-driver fad? Or, just a simple, growing desire to connect to that, nature, which seems ever more remote?

This trend (if I dare call it that), or growing incorporation of elemental aspects of nature within our largely non-natural culture, has most likely been gaining steam for years. Of course, maybe it has always been there, manifesting in new and different ways, and it has only now come into my own personal consciousness. Perhaps the whole thing is a fad most notable for fueling the creation of silkscreened bird tees. Or maybe it is part of a much larger shift in aesthetic. Only time will tell. It is TBD.