Walking through feathers, perhaps rather shabby (4-2-4)
I believe the answer is:
down-at-heel
'rather shabby' is the definition.
(down-at-heel means shabby-looking)
'walking through feathers' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'feathers' could be 'down' (down is a kind of feathers) and 'down' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'perhaps' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for down-at-heel that I've seen before include "Looking shabby" , "Having a poor, shabby appearance" , "Generally shabby" , "In poor circumstances" .)