Models strut sporting sindoor at New York Fashion Week

Nepalese designer Prabal Gurung, who explored impermanence with his new collection at New York Fashion Week, had models walk the ramp in vermillion.

Prabal Gurung has been thinking deeply this season. He installed a mirrored square catwalk reflecting an opulent blue light display at the main branch of the New York Public Library for a Fashion Week show that explored the Buddhist concept of “anichya” or impermanence. In butterfly motifs, woolen jackets and shades of vermilion, saffron, burgundy and antique rose, Gurung thought of his native Nepal, where he hadn’t been since the pandemic. He was motivated by a 10-day meditative retreat he recently experienced to “silence everything.”

“In Nepal, we talk all the time about what’s there and how fast it can go,” he told The Associated Press in a backstage interview. “And that’s actually optimistic, especially in these challenging times.” Part of the idea was to find hope “in the dark places,” he said. “There is light after dark.”
His silhouettes were sharper and longer this time. Its asymmetry challenged the notion of harmony. He draped gently while providing sharp angles. There were flowing, sliding skirts, woolen jackets, and glittering gold and crystal colors.

Gurung said New York Fashion Week is a “magical, mysterious journey for him. An inward spiritual journey,” recorded at night at home in Nepal. Moody, yes, but hopeful in turquoise and emerald silk organza, a cropped black leather jacket with a pink shearling collar and its butterfly print, in a high-low black and white dress with a high neckline and another in a sheer red and black with sexy cutouts at the hip . There was an oversized sweater in an ivory and yellow butterfly knit and a pink and scarlet embroidered cocoon coat. “But there is a lot of power in it,” Gurung said. Everything grew out of silence on his 10-day Vipassana retreat, where reading, phone calls and exercise were forbidden. On the third day, a Painted Lady landed on his window, “and it gave me something to think about.”

Growing up with “impermanence,” Gurung said, he wanted to embrace the idea that nothing is fixed but constant change is not to be feared. You have to hug me, he said, and he’s got just the right clothes for the job. Kelsea Ballerini, who stunned at the Grammys in a yellow Gurung gown, was among his guests on the front row. She was joined by Becky G and Alyah Chanelle Scott.