New Kid on the Block: Prabal Gurung

A celebrity favorite, Prabal Gurung is best known for his red carpet gowns that have been worn by Hollywood elites like Demi Moore, Oprah Winfrey and Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld.

He has dressed even First Lady Michelle Obama, who has worn two of the designer’s custom-made gowns to high-powered political events.

As the fashion industry’s newest rising star when we first ran this story, his showings at New York Fashion Week received rave reviews, and his runway presentations were packed with a front-row dream team that included Anna Wintour, Carolina Herrera and top editors of major fashion magazines like W and Elle.

Gurung’s collections, feminine and glamorous, are infused with a sophisticated use of drapery, asymmetry and bold colors that create a dramatic edge and appeal to women around the globe. Gurung is a master in using basic color palettes such as black, white and grays to weave in bright, sundry colors like reds, blues and yellows to elevate his designs and create an artistic contrast.

For his Spring 2011 collection, Gurung unveiled a series of dresses with meticulous ruching, bold geometric color blocks, and asymmetric hemlines that liquefied against a woman’s body. His Fall 2011 collection showed a refined sensibility rooted in American tradition with a nod to the European aesthetic. With his dramatic use of red, white and black, Gurung created stunning dégradé fur jackets, black leather cocktail dresses and knitwear paired with long chiffon skirts; and with them, he showed a clever infusion of tuxedo tailoring, rich fabrics and lace appliqués.

Born in Singapore and raised in Nepal, Gurung’s design career began at New Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology. After completing several apprenticeships at local fashion houses, Gurung traveled worldwide to work in cities like Melbourne and London to help style fashion shows and photo shoots. By 1999, he arrived in New York City, where he cultivated his remarkable design pedigree.

Gurung attended the Parsons School of Design, where he was singled out as “Best Designer” at the annual Parsons/FIT design student competition. He worked for iconic American designers such as Donna Karan and Cynthia Rowley before he became the design director for Bill Blass.

In February 2009, Gurung went solo and launched his eponymously named collection for New York Fashion Week and received the universal admiration of critics. “Clothes for a thinking-man’s sex symbol,” was how he described his debut fall collection that featured, what would become, his signature cocktail dresses.

“Clothes for a thinking-man’s sex symbol.”

Gurung’s collections are featured in major publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and the New York Times. He is a member of the coveted Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) Fashion Incubator program.

Established by Anna Wintour, the prestigious program is designed to foster the country’s next generation of fashion designers by teaching them the craft, trade and business skills that they needed to succeed in fashion.

That year, the up-and-coming designer won the prestigious CFDA Swarovski Award for womenswear and was a recipient of USA Network’s Character Approved Awards.

The year before, the young designer was honored with the Ecco Domani Fashion Fund Award and was the runner-up for the CFDA’s Vogue Fashion Fund.

Gurung, an impressive designer, is an emerging talent to watch out for in the years to come.

From the MO print archive: this story first ran in The Premiere Issue of Meets Obsession Magazine. It caught Prabal Gurung as fashion's new kid, a few seasons into his own label; the collections and awards are as they stood then.

• Words: Mei Tan
• Contributions: Catherine Toor
• Photographer: Tyler Rose (portrait)