“Let me just show you something on my phone,” Prabal Gurung told the Cut at the after-party for his show last night. “It says, ‘grace under pressure.’ That has been my motto ever since I was in boarding school.” The designer’s fall collection was military-inspired, complete with an army-green palette, gold buttons, and killer black boots, and Gurung has personal experience with the subject matter. “I come from Nepal where the Gurkha army originated, so if the need be, I’d be willing to fight for it,” he said of his homeland’s historically scrappy peasant forces.
The collection, it turns out, is an ode to the new wave of female liberation. “I wanted the world to celebrate different kinds of women — women who have more substance, intelligence, inner confidence,” he told us, calling out Hillary Clinton and Zadie Smith as personal favorites. “Feminism is taking a different turn. It’s not just about old-school bra-burning feminism, but about literally being comfortable being a woman.”
And yes, he has been watching Girls: “Our mothers were supposed to act in a certain way,” he said. “Girls perpetuates the idea that you can just be yourself, and you don’t need to be wearing a cardigan around your shoulder.”
