From fluttering ostrich hems in Lanvin's fall 2010 collection to a single bright plume on headpieces by local designers, feathers are a current popular source of embellishment.

The practice of adding literal plumage to clothing is hardly new, however. Demand for feathers for fashion drove entire bird populations to near extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For being such airy objects, feathers carry the weight of both luxury and controversy, a subject explored in a show that opens Friday at the University of Minnesota's Goldstein Museum of Design.

"There is an irony between a beautiful fashion object and knowing feathers are involved," said Jean McElvain, one of the "Flights of Fancy" curators. "Is it gruesome or is it beautiful?"

The show tackles the topic of activism. During the height of feathers' popularity, hunters would hack off egrets' wings, leaving them to bleed to death. The Audubon Society and the works of James J. Audubon were instrumental in passing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Now most of the feathers used for sartorial purposes are from birds such as ostriches, pheasants, chickens and peacocks, which shed their quills. The exhibit adds a dose of realism by including study skins from the Bell Museum of Natural History.

McElvain traces the origins of fashionable feathers to Marie Antoinette, who was called "featherhead," possibly because of the shafts and whole birds she placed in her frothy hair. The show has examples from the 19th century, when feathers were sometimes reassembled to look like actual birds on hats and fans. Even a 2009 Monique Lhuillier wedding gown is covered in bleached peacock feathers.

It's an example of "how manipulated feathers can be," said McElvain. "But you can still see the iridescence." When you look closely at a Muppet-like Sonia Rykiel Marabou stork coat, you can see the painstaking process that went into making it. "[Feathers] must each be secured individually," she said. "They're not durable and you can't wash them. They're so impractical." They also don't serve any function besides decoration.

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This peach feathered coat from France, by Sonia Rykiel, was made circa 1970-75.

The result of all of the work pays off in opulence. McElvain pointed out that when you put on an Oscar de la Renta evening coat (circa 1975 to 1983) with a crest of feathers as a collar, it mimics a bird puffing itself up.

Imitation is statement-making and perhaps alludes to a more conceptual reason for the presence of feathers in fashion. "Flight is perceived freedom from Earth," McElvain said. "If you see something beautiful, you want to wear it, embody it and become it."

Sara Glassman • 612-673-7177