A month ago, Prabal Gurung and a few of his designer and fashion-adjacent friends launched the side project House of Slay, an online comic book in which their alter-ego superheroes combat anti-Asian hate. Gurung and company call themselves the #Slaysians, and they have a tagline: “Alone, each of you can be broken. But together you make a radiant fist.” The potential brand extensions are myriad and might one day include a TV or movie deal.
IRL, Gurung has been finessing pre-fall, a collection that “slays,” to borrow a term, while remaining grounded. Emphasizing versatility, he added the rouleau buttons that have trimmed cutouts on many a Gurung dress over the seasons to a dark-rinse denim corset top and full skirt with contrast stitching, so that the pieces can be worn separately or as a fit-and-flare dress. Similarly an embroidered shift has a button-off sleeve.
There’s also quite a bit of dip-dyed knitwear: simple pullovers, shrunken twinsets, and stretchy midi-dresses, which Gurung makes in his native Nepal. He likes the unexpected combination of a lotfy, boxy ribbed knit with a sequined sarong. Elsewhere, ruffled dresses in floral prints shot through with metallic threads take their style cues from Yves Saint Laurent, who was a favorite of Gurung’s very own superhero, his mother. Saint Laurent had a knack for special pieces that retained their ease—maybe that’s why they look so timeless decades later. Gurung worked on maintaining that balance even with his red carpet fare. A bustier and ball skirt separated by those rouleau buttons and a flash of midriff looked fresher and more modern than a traditional one-piece gown would have in its place.
