Citizen Prabal:

Finding a More Equitable, More Beautiful world through Fashion

Who Gets to be American?

 

Fashion is a whimsical multi-colored butterfly, a saucy effervescent thing which is here today and gone tomorrow, leaving no meaningful impact. Into this frothy world comes a young designer from Nepal who wants to create everlasting beauty but give it a solid mooring in real life, real people.

Prabal Gurung  is a reigning prince of style in New York, but never far from the issues of the larger world, be it women’s power or the impact of education for children in forgotten corners of Nepal.

He is the rock star of New York City’s high voltage fashion world, and the darling of the red carpet circuit. His difficult name – Prabal Gurung – has become a touchstone in the international fashion world. This year he turns 40 and his company completes ten years in the city’s frenetic fashion scene.

Gurung channels the inner strength and beauty of all women and his clothes are about glamour and empowerment. Michelle Obama has worn his designs and so has the Duchess of Cambridge, Oprah Winfrey and Queen Rania of Jordan. And don’t forget Hollywood and Bollywood royalty including Sarah Jessica Parker, Anne Hathaway, Lady Gaga, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone .

His very first collection in 2009 got splashed across the cover of Woman’s Wear Daily and this year he dressed not one but nine celebrities at the iconic Met Gala.  Indeed his label is coveted by international fashionistas and sold in over 20 countries. With his legion of fans and social media followers, success has come big time to Prabal Gurung, who also has a concept store on Bleecker Street. His clothes are available worldwide through his site.

In the fickle, whimsical world of fashion where trends and brands come and go in the blink of an eye, Gurung seems to be a keeper. Women crave his clothes – colorful, gorgeous and glamorous – but there’s something much more substantive going on there.

Gurung speaks about his convictions through the vocabulary of fashion. He is a storyteller, a real-life activist, and his travels, his memories and his beliefs find their way into his designs, and his narrative, his dreams are woven into the garment.

In his very first collection he used environmentally friendly natural fabrics and the colors he used were the ones worn by the Newar tribal women of Nepal. In 2017, his show ended with models in tees with phrases like ‘This is What a Feminist Looks like’ and ‘We Will Not be Silenced.’  His fall/winter 2017 collection featured tees that read  ‘I Am An Immigrant” and ‘Break Down Walls.’

Check out his collection and you see the models on his runway are a microcosm of the world we live in – a humanist celebration of all colors, races and genders in which each person is special, and his creations reflect that.

So who is Prabal Gurung and how did he arrive at that space?

I met the designer in his sleek office in Manhattan’s bustling garment and we had a long chat across a vast glass table, jumping from Kathmandu to India to London and zooming on to New York.

Clad in a tee-shirt and jeans, Prabal Gurung is relaxed and easy and with those common countries between us, I felt I already knew him – though of course I don’t.  He is cheerful, direct and frank, with no celebrity airs or VIP velvet ropes impeding the conversation.

“The person I am now is because of my time spent in Nepal and in India collectively,” he says, looking one directly in the eye. “I was fortunate enough to be born in a family where education was a priority and my passion for sketching and painting was encouraged.”

Prabal  Gurung was born in Singapore to a father who was in the armed forces and a mother who was a teacher.  His parents had separated and he spent his growing up years in Kathmandu where he attended an all-boys boarding school and then on to India and later a stint in London and Australia before landing in New York.

As a gay man, early in life Prabal Gurung realized that he viewed the world differently than others, through a special prism, and he was very fortunate in being the son of his mother,  Durga Rana.

“I grew up with an extremely strong mother who is independent and progressive. She had the foresight to be understanding of who I was as a child,” he says. “Even though I was teased and bullied and taunted in school growing up, told constantly that I was different, she made me feel that my difference was a special gift. I soon decided if everyone’s telling me that I’m different then I’m going to do things differently.”

He recalls his unusually emphatic bringing up:  “I used to love putting on makeup, and she never once said, don’t. She would say instead, ‘This is the way to do it. You’re not doing it the right way.’ I used to be fascinated with my sister’s beautiful clothes and I wanted to try them. And she would be fine with it. She would question – ‘Why are the clothes assigned by gender? They can be worn by anyone!’ That’s my mom’s philosophy.”

He adds, “It was difficult when you’re growing up, you know, but in hindsight, I can look back and be grateful to all the boys who beat me up because it really prepared me for the world. It really taught me resilience and grit – and also made me aware of my own individuality. When you can’t easily belong to a group, you’re always alone, right?”

As the designer in him was taking shape, Prabal Gurung relied on his close-knit inner family circle. His older sister is an academic in Nepal while his brother works in Mumbai in the Bollywood film industry with directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Karan Johar.  Prabal’s move to India further shaped his world view. “For me, India and Bollywood films are what truly gave me the freedom to dream – the music, the visuals, the colors – everything really affected me.”  He feels his real growing up happened in India and he went to work as an assistant with designer Manish Arora who was just launching his line.  It was a heady time when a life in fashion became a real possibility.

He recalls watching Oprah Winfrey on television in Kathmandu. He did not know who she was but her commandment about ‘living your dreams’ resonated with him. He recalls, “I remember it hit me, it really, really hit me. I turned to my sister and told her, ‘I want to go to America. I want to go to New York and give it a shot.”

He came to New York to study at Parsons School of Design and that first taxi ride from JFK is still fresh in his mind: “I still vividly remember that moment, I felt I’m finally home because New York is a city of misfits, people who’ve come from different parts of the world – and I knew I’d find my tribe here, I’d find myself here. And I did.”

Prabal Gurung interned with Donna Karan while he was studying at Parsons where he won the design competition. The next year Parsons asked him to do an entire show and Cynthia Rowley was the judge. He went on to get his first job with Rowley who also sponsored him for a work visa. It was here he learned the business side of design. Later he worked as the Design Director at Bill Blass and learned all about the intricacies of haute couture and quality. He says, “It was this big American couture house and it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It fine-tuned everything for me. I worked with 1516 seamstresses who had been with Ungaro and Chanel, Italian tailors from Armani and Escada. It was working with the best of the best and I learned a lot in construction and design.”

He worked there for five years before launching his own company Prabal Gurung.  in 2009, in the midst of a recession. In order to finance this, he had to downsize from a sleek apartment in Soho to a studio in a gritty neighborhood and this served as his atelier too. His very first collection made it to the cover of WWD, and the next collection was heralded in the media with the heading: ‘A Star is Born’.

Each Prabal Gurung garment has the best of many worlds – embroidery, crafts, fabric and workmanship from India, China, Nepal and Italy but the majority of the manufacturing is done right here in New York.  Says Prabal, “I just want to support the local garment industry and give back to the economy and to the country that gave me an opportunity.”

The Prabal Gurung brand and collection is about ‘Femininity with a bite.’ “I know for sure in any world, and especially today’s world, a woman in her full feminine glory is really unnerving for a lot of patriarchal men. No doubt about it, they can’t handle it, you know what I mean?” he says. “And so, that’s the whole idea of  femininity with a bite. That’s what the collection is. That’s what the brand is, it’s about this woman who is unafraid to fully embrace her glory, enjoy herself, wear lipstick, wear dress, whatever. And yet, there is real substance to what she’s doing.”

From Bill Blass Prabal learned about  American comfort and quality, but living in New York he absorbed the spirit of  the New York  woman –    vivid street fashions, love of special occasions and the bold and the whimsical. All find their way into his ready-to-wear fashions showcased in the fall, spring and resort collections.

Atelier Prabal Gurung was there from the start, the custom couture created for special clients but last year he launched his first Atelier collection at the Met since there has been so much demand for these special, made to measure ensembles.

According to fashionista.com, the gowns Gurung designed for the Met Gala make up the first collection and retail from $11,995 to $37,995 for Diane Kruger’s stunning blue minidress with a long train.

“I thought it was the perfect time to really talk about what we stand for; what we stand for, and what we do besides the ready-to-wear, is this incredibly high-end, uncompromised, considered clothing for a woman who has places like this to go to. I thought the Met Gala was the perfect place to have this be launched because it’s fashion’s biggest playground.”

 

A decade of commitment to quality and creativity has won him several awards starting with the 2010 Ecco Domani Fashion Fund Award, 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up, a finalist of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, and the 2011 CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear.  He was honored in 2015 with the inaugural Creativity Award from The Drawing Center.

Over the past decade, Prabal Gurung has also collaborated with corporate brands including Target, Mac Cosmetics, Lane Bryant and Tasaki. As his star rose in the fashion world, Prabal felt the urge to follow what he had believed in his heart: “To be a citizen of our world, to forge our own identity, to remain rooted and foster community .”

 

A big bonus of his fame and success is that he’s been able to give back to the community, to causes that matter to him. He found Shikshya Foundation in 2016 which has over the years given education and  a better life to 30,000 children in Nepal. It’s a constant source of delight and wonder to him: “I’m able to impact lives because of what I love doing and which is also considered one of the most frivolous industries!”

Gurung’s myriad influences in the places he’s lived have formed him. So whether it’s politics or gender, he takes a stand. Even when he’s casting shows, he wants to be inclusive, be it transgender models or plus size models. The fabrics he uses, the silhouettes, the styles are stitched from the cultures he’s encountered in his life.

While having received so much fame, he is still clear-eyed about it.  In spite of being dunked into the high octane New York celebrity world, he keeps his balance through family and friends. His mother has moved to New York and a daily lunch box packed with her home-cooked food is his joy, especially when it’s her special fish curry. He also loves watching Bollywood films and eating out with his friends, going to high voltage Sholay party events, singing and dancing the Bollywood way.  For Prabal, all this and the celebrity events are all part of the same carousel ride and equally fun.

Prabal Gurung on Representation 

As the tenth anniversary approaches, lots of big events are planned on both coasts and the launch of a gorgeous coffee table book which has a forward by Sarah Jessica Parker, who has become a close friend.

In November the Smithsonian is hosting Portrait of a Nation Prize Gala  and the awardees include Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold; Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; Earth, Wind & Fire’s Philip Bailey, Verdine White and Ralph Johnson; “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, former Pepsico chief executive officer Indra Nooyi, and Condé Nast’s artistic director Anna Wintour. Michelle Obama is one of the presenters, among other noted names. Prabal Gurung has been chosen to be the honorary designer of this gala event.

In this milestone year, Prabal Gurung has signed up with Creative Artists Agency (CAA). In September during New York Fashion Week, Prabal will be showing his 10^th anniversary collection. Earlier he had planned it at the new New York hotspot, the Vessel at Hudson Yards. He changed the location once he realized the space involved a major Trump donor.

He says, “I believe that a little gesture, a thoughtful gesture can shape the world – I’m very conscious of that. The satisfaction of sticking to your integrity is the most rewarding thing.”

For Prabal Gurung, fashion is a means to something much deeper. He says, “I am someone with intention. Through my fashion, through my design, through what I do, I want to be able to create a world that feels like what I want the real world to look like.”

 

The High Point of Prabal Gurung’s Decade

Michelle Obama’s 50^th birthday at the White House.

“It was incredible fun, an incredible group of people! Amazing leader, amazing First Lady but more than that is what I felt every time I saw them together was love. And the room felt like what the world should look like – it was so diverse. It was so incredible.

Of course, the highest point of my life was being able to bring my mom to New York!”

Durga Rana accompanied him to the White House. Talk about getting inspired by empowered women!

(This article first appeared as the cover story in India Today’s Spice magazine)