Gurung celebrates ‘all things woman’
NEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): New York’s first female governor. American Girl dolls. The Statue of Liberty.
Prabal Gurung celebrated all things woman Wednesday night on the runway and off at his New York Fashion Week show along the downtown waterfront. He summed up his inspiration thusly with a quote borrowed from the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion and culture critic Robin Givhan:
“To be girlish is to be powerful, because power is redefined.”
Whether Gurung achieved that goal in his springsummer mix of sporty dresses, loose trouser looks and elegant evening wear is up to interpretation, but he’s been thinking a lot about the fundamental questions in today’s culture wars over inclusivity, diversity, justice, femininity, beauty and ownership of women’s bodies.
“Who gets to be all of it or none of it? Who gets to be a girl. In today’s world, the maternal matriarchal energy is much more needed than ever,” he told The Associated Press from Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park on New York Harbor, with Lady Liberty as his backdrop.
America, he said, “has always been a woman but hasn’t always been treated beautifully.” New York is also a woman, Gurung said, as is new Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took the job last month after Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal and sat in the designer’s audience with Amelia Hamlin, Huma Abedin and Maye Musk, the model mother of Elon.
“I’m a storyteller, you know, and I tell different kinds of stories. And as a storyteller, I’m a healer. Through stories you can connect people. You see people. And that’s what fashion is. Fashion allows people to be seen, stories to be told and the joy and the optimism that comes with it,” he said.
This particular story follows Gurung’s 10th anniversary show two years ago in which he put models in beauty pageant sashes that read, “Who gets to be American?” He used highlighter yellow tulle, bubble dresses and electric green trucker jackets to tell his tale this time around.
Gurung showed dressmaker button detailing alongside feathery and slinky looks. There were tea dresses and undyed denim trousers and wrap mini dresses. And he did it in collaboration with Mattel’s American Girl, one of his show sponsors.
The doll brand is launching a limited edition Tshirt for both girls and their dolls emblazoned in multicolored letters with: “Stronger in Colour.” Some of his guests held custom American Girl dolls in celebration of “all the limitless possibilities,” according to a statement sent to media ahead of the show.
Had Gurung known what an American Girl doll was prior to the pairing?
“No, I didn’t, to be completely honest,” he acknowledged.
No matter. Gurung is a proven fierce advocate and ally — for people of color, for immigrants, for non-binary people, for women. He concluded: “I wanted to create a world where people tonight would feel that different kinds of beauty exist somewhere.”
Proenza Schouler
Sailboats wafted by on the Hudson River and the setting sun sparkled on the water as Proenza Schouler celebrated a return to in-person fashion shows against the spectacular setting of New York’s buzziest waterfront locale, Little Island.
Designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough were so delighted with Wednesday’s show, held in perfect late summer weather, that they shared a high-five and a kiss as they ran out for their bow in the new park’s amphitheater facing the water — surely one of the city’s premier views.
The show, which featured an appearance by vice presidential stepdaughter Ella Emhoff — who also appeared in the label’s digital February show — was timed precisely to the sunset at 7:15 p.m. That gave the designers a dramatic darkening sky as they presented a collection meant to celebrate a return not only to city life but to the ideas of travel and adventure.
“We wanted to capture this newfound freedom that we have, still slightly fragile at times,” McCollough said in a backstage interview after the show.
Hernandez noted that the two designers had developed the idea during their own travels, which began in April after nearly a year in lockdown. They visited islands both in Hawaii and in the Mediterranean, he said.
“This is life, this is living, this is what we all want to be doing,” he said of the show’s ethos. “Just that idea of expedition and travel and exploration. That’s what we do as humans — we want to learn more.”
The clothes were a mix of utilitarian black and bold yellow, red and orange. The brilliant colors, the designers said, were meant to suggest “a psychological tonic to recent times,” as well as a metaphorical turning of the page to a new chapter. Three colorful dresses in particular, in gauze jersey, pointed to “a life that is free to step out once again,” the duo wrote in their show notes.
Fringe on a number of garments was “a celebration of the handmade,’ they said. As for shoes, they were often flat and comfortable, recognizing ”the reality of comfort being paramount today.”
Emhoff, stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris, wore a poncho-like black coat, her hair pulled tightly back in a single braid. The modeldesigner, who graduated as an art major from the Parsons School of Design in May, also appeared in the label’s February collection, presented as a digital film.
The 2.4 acre Little Island park, which sits atop a series of columns shaped like tulips, opened in May, a jewel within the larger Hudson River Park. McCollough noted that with each Fashion Week, it had gotten “harder and harder to find new venues that have never been used before.”