As far as trend-prediction goes, I pretty much suck, but here’s a stab at it. I saw this article in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution last week and chuckled. Apparently, Petra the swan has fallen in love with a swan boat. After I read it I felt like I’d seen a lot of swans recently. Someone mentioned Make Way for Ducklings in the comments section a few weeks ago, which made me think of the swan boats in Boston. Another blogger (was it Sally? I can’t remember!) had the Marc Jacobs swan featured a few months back, and I remember swiping the picture. Now I can’t find it, of course, but just as well since I can’t remember to whom it belonged.

You know, let’s back up a little bit for some swan history. Bjork was always way ahead of her time. I’m thinking that her swan dress might fare better this season. I always thought it was totally cool and totally Bjork to wear that to the Oscars, but maybe I was biased because I always loved The Sugarcubes too much (I mean, I still call Katie Terris on her birthday and sing “Today is a birthday-ay-ay – they’re smoking cigars…” 20 years later, that is, when I remember her birthday). Anyway, the swan dress (see below) was a hell of a lot more interesting in whatever heinous confection Hilary Swank comes up with for the Oscars each year.

The image of the swan suffered a bit when some network, I’m thinking it MUST have been Fox, had a horrible reality show called “The Swan.” I didn’t really watch it, unless snippets on “The Soup” count, but basically they told a bunch of people they were really ugly, then gave them major plastic surgery and had them compete against each other in a beauty pageant. I hope the anthropologists of the future never unearth this footage when they try to understand out society. But anyway, we’ll try to forget that bit of swan history and get back to recent times…

By the time I arrived at Marc Jacobs Savannah, the window was filled with a skunk in a field of flowers, and the wooden swan had been pushed to the back room, on its way out. Apparently in Marc Jacobs World, swans are indeed OVER, which can only mean one thing: Swans are on the rise for the masses, ready to ascent until they hit the tipping point! Surely they must be on the pipeline for mass release at a Gap or Urban Outfitters near you. It will start on the both coasts, and by summer 2010, swan-mania will hit Ohio.

Proof of the swan staying power:  That’s Mom, Aunt Sally, and Great-Great Aunt Helen on the Boston swan boat (front right side) in 1947:

CODA: The next big thing as deemed by a Marc Jacobs window: Fake flowers and skunks. Are these Wizard of Oz type psychedelic poppies? Or just a nice bright habitat for a Thumper-ish skunky pal? I’m not sure. We’ll wait to until the tipping point to try and understand how this one plays out:

Petra with the inanimate object fetish photo from Frank Augstein/A.P., as seen in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Boston swan boats picture from garbrielleavm

Marc Jacobs Swan photo from flickr member MisterDarcy

Bjork photo is all over the web with no credits that I can find.