Prabal Gurung went on the road for inspiration for his latest collection. With Gloria Steinem.
Not literally. But the designer, who puts lots of research into each new season, read Steinem’s recent memoir, Life on the Road, and was inspired by her journey — and her “strength and stark determination to fight for feminism with a bite.” In an interview, Gurung also noted that Steinem, now 82, was a personal hero to his own mother.
How did that translate into Gurung’s always luxurious and complex designs this season? “The notion of modern feminism is reflected in a loosening of silhouettes juxtaposed with refined tailoring, creating a fluid offering that gives her the power of choice,” he wrote in his production notes.
Backstage before his Sunday evening runway show — which he downscaled to a venue that seats 400, rather than his usual 800, so people could see the detail in the clothes better — Gurung mused further about the feminist struggle, and the possibility of the first female president of the United States.
“As [the possibility] comes closer, we take it for granted,” he said, but Hillary Clinton becoming president “would be a huge, big message” to the world. “So for me, I wanted to find out, how did she end up here? I went back to the feminist movement from Harriet Tubman to Susan B. Anthony to Gloria Steinem.”
Would a female president be comfortable in the high-fashion items — luxurious cashmere, silk and satin, body-hugging gowns, skirts with high slits — that Gurung sent down the runway?
Gurung pointed to the last three outfits. Usually he might end with a glamorous gown, but in this case, the final outfits were all versions of pantsuits. The last, especially, seemed powerful: a black pantsuit “with gunmetal script embroidery with released chain.”
In an intriguing aside about the outfit written in his production notes, the designer remarked: “Our backs tell the story no books have the spine to carry.”
