17th-century Dutch paintings inspire Suhani Parekh’s new ready-to-wear collection

Earlier this year, Suhani Parekh of Misho Designs unveiled the label’s first ready-to- wear collection, Volume One, a capsule wardrobe of reimagined classics in a black-and-white palette. The line, featuring pieces that feel sculptural yet wearable, continues to grow as the founder and creative director launches Spring Summer ’26 — Volume Two.

The collection introduces new silhouettes layered with handcrafted brooches and jewellery in the form of flora and fauna.

“Instead of approaching Spring-Summer ’26 through colour, I wanted to approach it through silhouettes and materials that felt effortless for the season like hemp linen shirts, lighter tailoring, voluminous skirts and relaxed structures that still feel architectural. Black and white has always been central to how I dress personally, so it naturally became part of the language of Volume Two as well. The monochrome palette also creates the perfect contrast for the brooches and jewellery, allowing miniature worlds of flora and fauna to emerge across the garments,” Suhani elucidates.

Volume Two draws from South Asian tropical modernism and iconic 17th-century Dutch still lifes, extending the label’s language of modern architecture for the body into miniature sculptural worlds.

“The collection began with the paintings of 17th-century Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch, whose still-lifes depicted intricate arrangements of flowers, insects and animals with layers of symbolism and hidden narratives. What interested me was not only the beauty of these compositions, but the idea that every detail carried meaning and invited closer observation,” she shares.

Simultaneously, the couturier looked at South Asian tropical modernism and particularly at its architectural language, openness, restraint and relationship with climate.

“There was something interesting about bringing these two worlds together: the richness and narrative density of Dutch still life against the clean, sculptural ease of tropical modernist dressing. We interpreted these references through a contemporary lens. The brooches became a way of translating these still-lifes into wearable objects — a hummingbird placed on a blazer shoulder, a lizard climbing a sleeve, a frog reaching toward a fly. Each look becomes its own small composition,” she reveals.

Volume Two consists of ready-to-wear, jewellery and handcrafted brooches designed to exist together as one complete expression.

“I wanted the collection to feel like a complete summer wardrobe. From pieces you could wear on holiday like the Dragonfly Trousers, to more everyday silhouettes like the Snail Trousers with the Asymmetric Shirt or Convertible Funnel Neck Shirt, to evening pieces like the Bubble Skirts or the Cropped Blazer. The Trail Shirt and Cropped Back Shirt, for example, can move very easily from day to night depending on how they are styled,” she explains.

Rather than approaching ornamentation traditionally, the detailing in Spring-Summer ’26 feels playful, sculptural and integrated into the garments themselves. What makes these ensembles more practical is that the brooches can shift position across the garments and transform how each is worn.

“Some pieces received traditional embroidery where I wanted the motif to feel embedded into the fabric, almost discovered quietly within the silhouette, while the brooches function more like objects placed onto the body. The Snail Trousers feature a snail embroidered across the back, while the Dragonfly Trousers have a dragonfly placed onto the pocket. The Cropped Jacket and Barrel Ant Trousers are finished with 24K gold-plated embroidered ants that move across the garments almost like small hidden details waiting to be noticed,” she adds.

The materials became very important in shaping the balance between structure and ease throughout the collection while the jewellery and brooches offer intricate compositions of hummingbirds, dragonflies, geckos, frogs, ants, orchids, irises, calla lilies. These are forms chosen both for their symbolism and their sense of movement.

“We worked primarily across hemp linen, habutai silk, taffeta and net, each bringing a very different quality into the silhouettes. In Rachel Ruysch’s still lifes, there are always small moments hidden within the compositions — insects moving across flowers, creatures interacting quietly within the arrangement, details that reveal themselves slowly over time. I wanted to recreate that same feeling through jewellery. The Flower Bird Brooch or Hungry Bird Brooch, for example, almost capture a moment suspended in time,” she signs off.

₹18,517 onwards. Available online.

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