ROCK STAR FASHION WEEK PARIS
Organized by: Prasanna Weerasooriya
Organized by: Prasanna Weerasooriya
Designer: Mandy Anderson
Mandy Anderson Brings “Unfinished Wings” from America to India to Paris: Transforming Suicidality into Art that Speaks
This fall, Mandy Anderson, reigning Mrs. America United Nations, carried something far more profound than gowns from India to Paris — she carried a message stitched from survival.
In September 2025, Anderson represented the United States at the Mrs. United Nations Pageant in India, bringing with her Unfinished Wings — a deeply personal project that was born, quite literally, from the edge between life and death. Only weeks later, she presented Unfinished Wings on two runways at Paris Fashion Week, continuing to turn private anguish into public purpose.
Where Fashion Meets Survival
Unfinished Wings began during one of Anderson’s most suicidal periods — a moment when she could no longer find words, but still needed a way to stay alive. Out of that darkness, she began creating symbolic wings, and later gowns, each one conceived during the suffocating suicidality. Every unfinished dress became a way of saying: I’m still here.
Each dress is a reflection of a specific episode — not after healing, but within the storm. “They are not made from the other side of recovery,” Anderson has said. “They are made while I am “in it–not through it”— because I don’t always know if I’ll get through it. I work until I find enough light, enough hope to stay. Then I want to share that light and hope with everyone.”
A Global Stage for a Fragile Truth
In India, Anderson’s, representing the United States, stood as proof that purpose can coexist with pain.
Days later, in Paris, her Unfinished Wings designs floated down two runways, delicate and full of inspiration. Created from thrifted and repurposed gowns, each piece symbolized new life from what was once discarded — a visual echo of her own story–an honesty rarely seen in fashion: beauty that doesn’t hide the broken seams.
Not Healed — But Honest
Anderson’s journey is not a story of triumph over mental illness. It’s a story of endurance within it. She continues to live daily with depression and suicidality, yet uses that ongoing struggle to bring hope to others to also feel enough light and hope to STAY. . Her transparency has become her advocacy: to show that conversations about suicide don’t always have to be in a theraputic setting— sometimes, they begin with our willingness to be open and honest about our struggles with others around us.
This fall, Mandy Anderson, reigning Mrs. America United Nations, carried something far more profound than gowns from India to Paris — she carried a message stitched from survival.
In September 2025, Anderson represented the United States at the Mrs. United Nations Pageant in India, bringing with her Unfinished Wings — a deeply personal project that was born, quite literally, from the edge between life and death. Only weeks later, she presented Unfinished Wings on two runways at Paris Fashion Week, continuing to turn private anguish into public purpose.
Where Fashion Meets Survival
Unfinished Wings began during one of Anderson’s most suicidal periods — a moment when she could no longer find words, but still needed a way to stay alive. Out of that darkness, she began creating symbolic wings, and later gowns, each one conceived during the suffocating suicidality. Every unfinished dress became a way of saying: I’m still here.
Each dress is a reflection of a specific episode — not after healing, but within the storm. “They are not made from the other side of recovery,” Anderson has said. “They are made while I am “in it–not through it”— because I don’t always know if I’ll get through it. I work until I find enough light, enough hope to stay. Then I want to share that light and hope with everyone.”
A Global Stage for a Fragile Truth
In India, Anderson’s, representing the United States, stood as proof that purpose can coexist with pain.
Days later, in Paris, her Unfinished Wings designs floated down two runways, delicate and full of inspiration. Created from thrifted and repurposed gowns, each piece symbolized new life from what was once discarded — a visual echo of her own story–an honesty rarely seen in fashion: beauty that doesn’t hide the broken seams.
Not Healed — But Honest
Anderson’s journey is not a story of triumph over mental illness. It’s a story of endurance within it. She continues to live daily with depression and suicidality, yet uses that ongoing struggle to bring hope to others to also feel enough light and hope to STAY. . Her transparency has become her advocacy: to show that conversations about suicide don’t always have to be in a theraputic setting— sometimes, they begin with our willingness to be open and honest about our struggles with others around us.
10/2025