It's raining fashion

The Carolina Herrera Fall 2008 collection is modeled during fashion week in New York, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews)

Imagine my surprise when I peeked out the window this morning to see big snowflakes drifting delicately to the street below.

Imagine my pout when I heard it was warm as a fresh croissant back home. But New York is where Fashion Week is … rain or snow. And it usually does one or the other — or both — while I’m here each February.

But enough about the weather.

Carolina Herrera, who packs the house each season, had the countryside on her mind when she was creating her fall 2008 collection. Close your eyes and imagine tweed vests, velvet riding pants tucked into boots and cropped jackets trimmed with fur. And the topper — feathers sticking dangerously out of fedoras. Some had to be at least 3 feet long.

Maybe it wasn’t realistic, but it made for a good show.

Herrera isn’t the only designer infatuated with feathers, which are showing up as adornment for the head, as stoles and even woven into sweaters.