This New York Fashion Week, fashion world waited anxiously and with bated breath for when the darling of the moment, Prabal Gurung, would unveil his Fall/Winter 2012 collection. The show was hands down one of the must-see events of the season. MyFDB co-founder Zoe Saldana sat front and center wearing a striking pantsuit from Gurung’s Spring/Summer 2012 line. Vogue Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour also made an appearance, wearing her characteristic suave and chic sunglasses throughout the entire runway show. Notable bloggers, socialites, and fashion addicts galore all emerged for the occasion creating quite a sensation around the event. The sleek IAC building on West 18^th street proved a fitting hall for the fashionable production. The building was designed by creative and renowned architect Frank Gehry, and it seemed fated that Gurungs radiant and futuristically distinctive designs should be seen for the first time in a structure of the same futuristic and inventive caliber.  A sleek open entryway, floor to ceiling windows, and a curving atrium proved to be most accurate for the collection-fitting together like a key in a lock.

Gurung’s collection, entitled “Uncursed,” was certainly more of a blessing of dark majesty than a curse. The unfurling of the looks in the runway show worked beautifully because it was an organic transition. The progression of the looks in themselves were a metamorphosis. One could imagine the creative design process in Gurung’s mind while seeing each look change before your eyes. This metamorphosis allowed for changes from black to electric blue to white to gold and yet kept an inspired cohesion in the luscious details of the transparencies, dropped waists, flounces, embellished hips, and remarkable accent fabrics. Gurung also employed the expertise of other fashion notables in his collection. The headpieces were by eccentric British milliner Philip Treacy. The leather pieces are accredited to fashion harness master, Zana Bayne. The makeup was provided by Mac Cosmetics and those powerful turquoise and ultramarine rimmed eyes are sure to be a trend to look for in summer.

Print and color are very vital to Gurung, his prevailing aesthetic, and the success of his collection. One accent fabric in particular was evocative of a slight film of oil on dark waters. It’s rainbow iridescence shone through in inventive panels amid a black coat and a couple of dresses. Moving from the smooth lushness of the darker black portion of the show, electric blue is introduced in the form of a high shine skirt, and fanciful wearable sweater. Within moments, a complex, dimensional print is initiated in it’s inclusion in several separates and a dress. This print is quite different than anything we’ve seen from the fashion house before. It is anatomical, featuring a bleached desert skull surrounded by intricate and multifaceted color and depth. This print, however different, is still so apparently Prabal Gurung. The sign of a good designer is when the house can experiment and yet keep the visual recognition of the brand intact. Prabal Gurung is a beautiful example of that idea. The looks evolves from the blue period to several ingenious and magnificent black transparent gowns with embroidery, appliqué, and feather details in abundance. After this black intermission, bright white statement dresses incorporated design and fabric manipulation details seen previously, but in a new and interesting way for each look. He then graduated into garments with sensational metallic gold fabric. Gurung’s inspiration for the use of gold stemmed from Asian sensibilites towards gold, where it ”is more auspicious. It’s more of an adorning, it’s more about celebration rather than flash.”

Gurung, then, finally, returned back to white for a culmination that ends on the idea of darkness to light. The transition from darkness to light throughout the entire collection was a noticeably conscious decision. Another deliberate decision is the casting of darker haired models in black and lighter haired models in white. The cognizance of the black and white transformation, Gurung said was about “a metamorphic message” concerning “the duality of ourselves, the dark side and light side we all have” and “the perfect harmony of those two.”

By Sarah Humphries

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