After a decade of what he calls too tight, too hard looks and women wearing clothes "five sizes too small", fashion's classiest 'it' designer is spearheading a vision of well-made craftsmanship with a softer, ethereal touch in the new year.
"2011 will be the year of women being women in a man's world, and leading it!" Prabal Gurung tells me with excited optimism.
Few designers know how to bring out the power of a woman's intellectualism and integrity, traits Gurung sees as the essence of beauty, like the compassionate 2010 Ecco Domini Fashion Foundation winner. Rejecting short hemlines and overly done looks, his spring line features supple cashmere knits proudly made in his native Nepal, edgy power suits for the next generation CEO or Congresswoman, and a stunning evening gown the color of candied ginger with a frisson of silks coming down the skirt like fireworks. Burnt oranges, bright canary yellows and cerulean blues evoke a euphoria and passion -- a cross between the insouciant nature of St. Tropez and the glowing exoticism of Central Asia's Silk Road.
Instead of showcasing breasts and behinds, Gurung tries to get at a woman's core by leaving some things to the imagination. His clothes ooze global sophistication and humble reserve, just like the man himself. In an earlier life, he would be dressing sharp, self-possessed leading ladies like Marlene Dietrich or Katherine Hepburn. He's not doing too shabbily in this one either, having outfitted First Lady Michelle Obama in a red stunner for the White House Correspondent's Dinner last year as well as attracting some of the most promising and put together young starlets in Hollywood--the ones that are fiercely independent and take on challenging roles, not the ones that flash their unmentionables as they drunkenly fall out of L.A. club bathrooms.
From Carey Mulligan and Blake Lively, to Demi Moore and Oprah, Gurung dresses women who are intelligent and passionate about causes beyond themselves, and he does it by choice.
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