My first intuition would be extruding the flaps from a sphere, however, it is somewhat static and doesn’t resemble the softness. Has anyone an idea how to model something like this?
The best way would be using the sculpt tools; with those, if enough experienced, you have full control of the shapes.
A quick way would be using the displace modifier: you start from an icosphere subdivided several times (depending on the needed resolution) then add on it a displace modifier. If result is not “soft” enough add also a smooth modifier.