“This time, I also want to order extra to take home with me. But that’s after lunch,” he tells her smiling. If you are Prabal Gurung, however, there’s a lot more to smile about than the prospect of delicious Nepali food on a cold winter day far from home.
2010 has been an exceptional year for the young designer from Nepal and his two-year-old fashion line and 2011 is already off to a great start. His color-blocked dresses, made in Nepal, have been photographed and published in some of the world’s biggest fashion magazines as a definitive example of the ‘colorful’ Spring 2011 style. Critics loved the way Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld looked in a white dress by Prabal as she presented an award (alongside Justin Bieber) at the Golden Globe Awards on January 16. Then First Lady Michelle Obama wore a third outfit by Prabal, this time on Oprah Winfrey’s show. Tomorrow, February 12, he will showcase his stunning Fall 2011 collection at the ongoing New York Fashion Week.
Fall Collection 2011
“The fall collection is always intense because there’s such a short gap between this and the spring collection,” Prabal explains. The Spring collection is showcased in September and by January designers have to be ready to present their fall collection in February. On top of that, expectations at Prabal’s show seem to increase with each passing season.
Prabal’s upcoming fall collection has been inspired by John Singer Sargent’s painting ‘A Parisian Beggar Girl.’ There are pieces in black, white and in shades of red and pink. As always, there are beautiful and imaginative dresses, and unlike last fall’s collection when Prabal limited fur to trimmings, this season he is much more playful about it and the pieces look gorgeous.
“The painting led me to draw inspiration from the character Ms Havisham from Great Expectations,” the young designer said at this studio in New York’s garment district last week. “Basically it’s a little bit of an undone casual couture, that’s the idea behind it, going back to easing with something so precious.”
Art, Movies and Food
After almost a decade in the industry, Prabal launched his own brand. Within two years of that he has earned some of the industry’s most prestigious accolades and is recognized as a rising star in the world of fashion. This year he will also be launching his ‘Resort Line’ in between the spring and fall collections. In between all the work, countless interviews and photo shoots, Prabal makes sure an important part of life and personality is not neglected: Having fun. “It’s not worth it if you’re not having fun doing it,” he says of his work.
In November Prabal played the curator’s role to artist Carey Kwok’s exhibition at the Flag Art Foundation Gallery in Chelsea. It was this very venue where Prabal presented his first two collections in 2009 before moving to the runways of New York Fashion Week exactly a year ago.
While he enjoys going out with friends, he also spends a surprising amount of quiet time and works out in the gym. And as much as he is known today for some of Hollywood’s A-List stars wearing his dresses, Prabal loves Bollywood, has ever since he was a child. Bollywood is starting to love Prabal back too; several of its starlets have been seen wearing Prabal’s dresses. When he tweeted about Nepal Tourism Year on January 1, and asked people to re-tweet it, Bollywood sweetheart Sonam Kapoor happily obliged. While Fashion editors speculate who might wear Prabal’s dress to the upcoming Oscars, the idea of attending Bollywood’s Filmfare Awards brings a smile to his face too.
When the movie Guzaarish was released last fall, he couldn’t wait to go watch it in theater. This Bollywood movie was also exceptionally exciting to Prabal since his older brother, Pravesh, was one of it’s Assistant Directors. Watching it at the Empire Theater in Time Square, the designer was clearly moved by the movie’s story and delighted by its production; he was proud of his brother’s work and couldn’t wait to go home and get on the phone to long-distance conference call his older sister Kumudini and Pravesh. In fact, despite all that has come his way professionally, the thing that he absolutely looks forward to are the long conference calls with his siblings, and he thinks about his annual Nepal trip months in advance.
Perhaps then, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he regularly rides the New York subway for half an hour from his apartment in the Lower East Side in Manhattan to Jackson Heights for that bite of sukuti, chased with some mula ko achar, washed down with chiya, and spending hours joking and speaking with friends in Nepali. He likes his warm plate of nostalgia that tastes like home.
In the meantime, the fashion industry and critics anxiously wait to see what he presents next. Here in New York, that wait is almost over.
You can follow the author’s photo + text coverage of New York Fashion Week and Prabal Gurung’s show at www.imposemagazine.com/fashion-week
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