t’s Pisces season, and we are all in all our feels. Parishae Adnan, designer, business-owner, Piscean, drops her head onto her arms as she states this fact with some feeling. It isn’t just that it’s Pisces season, or that Saturn has transited into Pisces, and so on, Parishae is also two days away from showing her new collection, which, she claims, “is not done!”

“Even if you ask me while the models walk down, I’ll tell you nothing’s finished,” she says, as she, along with two of her colleagues drapes some fabric on to a mannequin. One of the two people helping her laughs quietly and mouths, “Nothing is done,” while Parishae explains this new, exciting collection, the thought behind it, and the philosophy upon which she is executing it.

“Ahankara,” she explains, “is derived from Sanskrit and can [roughly] translate to ‘evolution of the ego’.” If the keyword here is ‘evolution’, then the title makes sense. While every consideration for Ahankara is similar to that for the designer’s previous collection, Un-Gaze, the look and feel has definitely evolved.

Each step of the process is still intentional. The fabric that forms the basis of some of the skirts used to be part of older sherwanis. The shell-like detailing on the bodice of a corset used to be plastic, upcycled to couture. It is sustainable, upcycled couture, and that, is the one place Parishae is still at.

“Everything is soft and flowy, because – well – it’s the season for that kind of feel,” says Parishae, though there are some super-aggressive pieces in the collection too. However those offset the softer designs, which despite their subtlety are still quite extreme. “This is a nude, nude,” Parishae remarks while flipping through the rack holding the outfits for the show. She refers to flesh-toned top, embroidered in varying shades of beige. In sharp contrast is the corset with jagged mirror-glass detail, and still more alarming, is the showstopper, which features organically-cut glass on a chiffon bodice.

At this point, as a wearer of clothes, the obvious question that springs to mind is: how on earth is your showstopping model going to carry this?

As luck would have it, actor Anika Zulfikar, who would go on to wear the sculptural piece at the Ahankara showcase, is working on the very piece at the studio just then. She has been working on glass wings to accompany the clothes, which are mechanized (and colored, when shown on the ramp) to swish up when she walks. At the show, the final piece bears a steel mail on the chest, which reads ‘Parishae’ in Urdu script.

When you flip through the statement explaining the collection, there is a lot about softening edges, and creating one’s own reality. While the clothes alone might not have been reflective of the entire sentiment, when viewed against the backdrop of the sea, choreographed to a meticulous playlist, the wind and waves doing their own thing, you understand what the designer is saying.

Unlike Un-Gaze, which incorporated a more autumnal palette, with fabric manipulated into structure, Ahankara, while not moving away entirely from this style, softens into, rather than organizes, the final form.

If there is a rose-gold steel corset, it is actually the thinnest layer, which is flexible. A chiffon skirt flows beneath the nameplate and glass wings Anika Zulfikar wears. Where elements dominate color-wise, Parishae chooses lame fabric, which contains all the glitz and reflectiveness of metal, without being metal. There is a dramatic moment on the ramp when two models move down single-file, unclipping their saris mid-walk to reveal lehngas.

“I did tell my models that each piece is multipurpose,” Parishae says. “Not as a lecture on sustainability, or just my own philosophy, but to make sure they can sit into their outfits comfortably. We take everything from personality to eye color into account when putting together a piece; it’s important that everyone feels comfortable.”

House of Parishae had begun work on Ahankara as soon as Un-Gaze wrapped up, and Parishae says that the thought process was already leaning towards a more gentle drape and palette.

“The day I stop thinking about what I’m going to do next,” she says, “is probably the day I should start doing something else.”

Find the designer’s work on Instagram @houseofparishae