Prabal Gurung sent his New York Fashion Week models down a long, gloomy runway in the shadow of the United Nations on Saturday, dressed in an explosion of color and color as an ode to the world’s misfits , who “are often watched and monitored, scrutinized but not seen. .”
The designer told The Associated Press that he discovered the building occupied by UN consulates and nonprofit organizations while on a bike ride on Manhattan’s East Side. He turned it into a white track that featured his metal detectors, slavery visuals and neon flashes.
“I wanted to create a space for this particular show where we felt what we feel in the culture itself: somewhat uncertain politically, culturally, but we still want to be hopeful, we want to be optimistic,” he said. “I needed to be around the UN’s reminder that our work in fashion is not done until we are alert and vigilant.”
Over the past year, Gurung said, he found his hope and optimism fading as the “status quo, the patriarchy” seemed increasingly concerned with those who resisted “regressive values.”
To find some joy and belonging again, he wrote in his show notes, he went to the outer boroughs of New York City, where “the style, the confidence, the nightlife and these new generations evoked a sense of familiarity, but new of unbroken authenticity that rekindles the same fire my mother gave me as a boy.”
So how did this translate to his latest spring collection on his pure white runway?
In a fiery red mini dress. Featuring a jet black bodysuit paired with a crinkled, hand draped chiffon skirt. In a white corset jumpsuit and a mint blouse worn with a black lambskin mini skirt by Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris.
He called his misfits “my families, my tribes, my friends” whose rights are often abused. As a creative person, Gurung said, the pandemic has reaffirmed his need to tell stories rather than just send clothes down a runway.
His story continued with a bright pink dress with hand-embroidered sequins and colorful ostrich feathers, a corset denim jacket and a fuchsia black mesh goddess dress. There was a tulle dress in soft pink and black, and another in soft blue and black. There were tap shorts and a lilac one-shoulder top.
Gurung’s sheer cobalt blue pants worn with an equally sheer long-sleeve chartreuse top that opened to reveal a black bralet moved with the pattern just like many of his fluid looks. It was definitely a different direction for Gurung.
“Instead of doing a regular show, I wanted to create an experience,” he told the AP. “Storytellers are healers.”
