There’s a dress from Prabal Gurung’s Resort collection that’s been making the holiday-party rounds. It’s a rosy shade of pink silk jacquard with a cut-out at the side, which is lined with functional rouleau buttons. You can wear the buttons undone for flashes of skin or closed for a more discreet effect, but most women go with open. It’s worth bringing up here, because those buttons are a recurring motif in Gurung’s new Pre-Fall collection—at the midriff of a blue and silver velvet fil coupe version of the pink best-seller, and tracing the thigh-high slit of a twist-front, black-and-white gown. He knows a hit when he sees one.
But he also wouldn’t mind shaking off the lingering red carpet association. His repertoire, he explained, extends well beyond event dresses. Gurung made that point a couple of different ways. In one case, he layered a slouchy turtleneck over a bias-cut plaid slip dress trimmed in black lace. Ditch the sweater and you actually do have a cocktails-worthy frock. The other day looks shown were a pair of suits, one in black with gently puffed shoulders and tails and the other in a heathery shade of gray with deep slits to the elbows. Those delicate touches distinguish Gurung’s suits from the many others that designers have lately trotted out now that tailoring is trending. These days, Gurung has a confident sense of what his signatures are—and what he’s good at.
