Yes, the Oriole Bird has a mom, and just in time for Mother’s Day, she’s getting a glow up.
If you’re at Camden Yards for Sunday’s game, you’ll see it, thanks to a Maryland Institute College of Art student’s vision. Think Black-Eyed Susans, Laura Ashley aesthetics, and maybe your mom’s spring or summer style from decades ago.
The Oriole Bird first broke into the world from a seven-foot Styrofoam egg on the Memorial Stadium field before the O’s home opener in April 1979. We’ll save the complete family history for another day, but for at least the last several years, the Orioles have featured Mother Bird alongside her Mascot Hall-of-Famer child on Mother’s Day at the stadium.
Until now, momma bird has worn—to put it nicely—a nearly comical, mismatched outfit (floral print dress, striped purse, checkered headscarf) assembled from a thrift store. The new ‘fit looks much more curated. Paying homage to her style, it’s still dated and still has flowers, but now purposefully so.
It was designed by MICA sophomore Angel Forsyth as part of a class project and collaboration with the Orioles. The team picked Forsyth’s concept from a group of submissions organized by MICA’s Hope Simpara, who teaches garment design and production. Students compiled mood boards, drew conceptual sketches, and produced a finalized rendering.
“The goal was to give her a put-together look,” Forsyth says of Mother Bird.
Before getting the assignment, she didn’t know there was such a character. (To be fair, neither did we.) A general fine arts major pursuing an illustration minor, Forsyth says the class is her first foray into fashion design.
She brainstormed and landed on a style that mothers of sports fans close to her age today would have seen worn by their mothers in the 1970s or ‘80s.
“Then I started thinking about styles from that time, inspired by the original dress, like Laura Ashley-style florals with poofy sleeves and sailor collars,” Forsyth says.
Simpara also mentioned to the class that the Black-Eyed Susan was the state flower of Maryland, which unlocked a core memory for Forsyth. She remembers being 4 or 5 years old and walking a path bordered by wildflowers near the family’s apartment outside of Syracuse, N.Y., where her dad, Jeff, would bring back a fistful of the blooms for her mom, Kelly. Today, Forsyth and her mom even have matching tattoos that include Black-Eyed Susans.
“It just feels like a very Mother’s Day-type symbol,” Forsyth says.
From her research and mood board—which included vintage Orioles logos and merch, those Laura Ashley dresses, and the mascot itself—the concept was hatched. (Much like the “birth” of the Oriole Bird decades ago, in a costume worn by another college student, then-Morgan State senior Gregory Tull).
She added a flower-adorned Preakness-style hat, too. “I love things that are a little bit outdated, especially for a project like this,” Forsyth says. “It made sense to have something chic, but outdated. It was meant to be like fashion from a different time.”
Forsyth and Simpara took measurements of Mother Bird last week on MICA’s Baltimore campus, and dress construction came together this week as Forsyth wrapped up other finals and was part of an art showing.
On Sunday, Forsyth—who eventually wants to be an art teacher, if not write graphic novels—will be at Camden Yards with her mom. While she played softball for years and—being from New York—attended a few Yankees games as a kid, it will be her first Orioles game ever.
“I like watching baseball, but I’m also kind of just there to hang out and buy a snowcone and periodically ask who’s winning,” she says.
Not a bad way to do it. Except this time, she and others will also get to see her work on full display. Black-Eyed Susans, on a bird, on Mother’s Day. Does it get any better?