Second Skin reconstructs menswear, bridalwear, and deadstock around the female body — eight looks, one hand-embroidered tie, and a story two decades in the making.
Photo Credit Parishae Adnan
Pakistani couturier Parishae Adnan closed Flying Solo’s New York Fashion Week show with Second Skin, an eight-look collection built entirely from archival menswear, bridalwear, and deadstock fabric — dismantled and rebuilt around the female form through tailoring, corsetry, and hand embroidery.
The collection moves in a clear arc. It opens inside the rigid codes of traditional menswear — strong shoulders, precise tailoring, a tie — before working its way into corsetry, exposed internal structure, and exaggerated volume. By the final looks, that structure gives way entirely to sweeping tulle, closing the show on a note as soft as the opening was severe.
A Tie, Twenty-Four Years Later
At the center of Second Skin is a piece of family history. Look 1, titled My Father’s Tie, incorporates a hand-embroidered tie originally created for a 2001 collection by Parishae’s father, Pakistani designer Amir Adnan. It’s a detail that grounds the entire collection: this isn’t reinterpretation for its own sake, but a designer working directly with material that carries her own lineage.
That same instinct runs through the rest of the collection, as archival bridalwear, menswear, and traditional South Asian dress are taken apart and rebuilt into forms that owe nothing to their original silhouettes.
Who Was in the Room
The presentation drew a notable slice of New York’s creative community, including Grammy Award-winning musician Arooj Aftab, artist and influencer Sufi, and actor Anika Zulfikar — a turnout that reflects the growing attention on Adnan’s work within both the fashion and South Asian creative diaspora communities.
Second Skin closes out Flying Solo’s NYFW lineup as one of the season’s more personal statements: proof that reconstruction, done with intention, can say as much as anything built from scratch.
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