Anniversaries are useful milestones for taking stock. More often than not they inspire nostalgia, but they can prompt forward thinking too. Having spent his own 10th anniversary looking back, including via a self-titled monograph with Abrams, Prabal Gurung approached pre-fall with a new intention: to reduce excess with an eye toward the fashion industry’s role in global warming. “As each brand embraces diversity and inclusion, we can’t neglect the most important factor in our lives: the climate crisis,” Gurung said.
The new collection has been made with various materials and laces upcycled from his own past collections as well as with new polyester taffeta created from recycled bottles. Overall this season he was able to cut his fabric use by 50%; that these are just preliminary steps, Gurung is aware. But if he was previously reluctant to publicize them, now he’s ready “to go a little full force.” Explaining himself, he said, “Even if each of us act five or 10% more sustainably, collectively, that becomes a powerful step.”
In the end, the collection isn’t entirely nostalgia-free. The aforementioned upcycled fabrics were patch-worked into a willowy sheath with Gurung’s signature rouleau-button cutouts. Elsewhere, a vibrant turquoise pantsuit was cut with his popular bell sleeves, and the silk charmeuse tie-neck blouse underneath it is also a former best seller. There should be no shame in revisiting successful patterns, but that’s not how fashion has historically operated. “It used to be a sacrilege to use the same fabric again,” Gurung lamented. But time changes things. In another 10 years garments produced non-sustainably will be the exception. The gown in tiers of pleated black taffeta and the midi in pleated fuchsia taffeta—both responsibly made—are a sound foundation for the future.
