Prabal Gurung hosted a screening of In the Heights for his fashion friends a couple of weeks ago. Its stars Leslie Grace and Melissa Barrera joined him, as did the movie’s director Jon M. Chu. On his Instagram later that night Gurung plugged the movie: “You will fall in love with cinemas again and realize life is indeed stronger in color.” The mood and spirit of that New York tale seems to have rubbed off on him. For resort he spent a day in Chinatown bustling from spot to spot shooting the new collection. It had been inspired by the young people he encountered at marches and protests against Asian discrimination earlier this year, their body positivity and the freedom with which he saw them dressing.
Activism and, more broadly, awareness have become central to Gurung’s brand. He’s a vocal advocate for representation and inclusivity, and that comes across in these photos, which were produced by an all-female crew, he pointed out. “I used to live in Chinatown, right before I launched my collection. That’s where I started to plot and plan what I wanted my career to be, but I was fully aware of how invisible the community was to the rest of New York. When we talk about the city we talk about the glitz and glamour, but its grit and the character is in neighborhoods like Chinatown. I wanted to celebrate that.” He went on: “I was very inspired by how completely uninhibited my fellow marchers were, and I wanted to capture that.”
These are not sneakers and combat boots clothes, though it’d probably please Gurung if his fans wore them that way. The collection leans dressy, and ranges from clingy mini styles (at a new low price-point for the brand) to flirty party looks including two-piece bandeau and skirt sets, to full-on red carpet fare with the midriff cut-outs and thigh-high slits he’s known for. Amidst all the pretty pastel frocks were some tailored looks. A black smoking with sequined lapels and a peplumed flower petal waist was exuberant in all the ways we expect Gurung’s clothes to be, but the light blue pantsuit has more significance. Its jacket is not dissimilar to the one Kamala Harris wore earlier this month, when she became the first vice president to appear in Washington D.C.’s Pride Walk.
