February 13, 2010

It’s difficult to be impressed by collections that use birds as a theme, since too easily and too often they could just be a generically nebulous swirl of fabric with some feathers attached.  To my pleasant surprise, I found myself ooh-ing and ahh-ing along with the audience at Irina Shabayeva to a procession of beautiful outerwear that referenced elements of cliché yet managed avoid its triteness.

The cape-like coats are stunningly complex shapes of angles and swirls yet still wearable, with feather details that were graphic and abstracted.  Even more impressively, Shabayeva made the massive forms trimmed with fur feel almost as light as air.  However, one look that had black feathers as a silhouette on a white dress resembled more of a cut-and-paste project, and seemed slightly out-of-step with the voluminous forms of the rest of the collection.