Prabal Gurung, a Bill Blass alum, knows from swans because they used to flock to that house back in the day. He’s just as clued into what his own customers want and need—and it’s not sweatpants. “We’ve always had a small private client business,” the designer explained on a studio visit. (Taika Waititi and Rita Ora were among the celebrities who wore his designs to the 2023 Met Gala.) Like many eveningwear designers, Gurung has experienced an uptick in interest in his most glamorous creations. He recently visited India, where he observed that many traditional weddings have grown to include a “Western night.” Taking both situations into consideration, he soft-launched his Atelier collection last year. Having successfully tested it at retail, he’s ready to go public with Collection One.
Unlike his ready-to-wear collections, which are built around a story, Atelier is focused around specific occasions and is focused on more traditional silhouettes. “When it comes to evening, few [of our clients] want to look trendy; most of them want to look beautiful. From my time at Bill to now, that hasn’t changed… When you look back at those photos from, let’s say, Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn, [their style] has lasted forever; it wasn’t trendy, and my aim is that,” he said.
And so this collection includes several full-skirted “princess” gowns (one in robin’s-egg blue with black polka dots is especially charming); the requisite corsetry, both coquettish and downright sexy; columns with intricate hand-embellishments; and sari-inspired silhouettes, which are a Gurung signature. More forward-looking fashion-wise is a version of the bell-skirted dress Anok Yai wore to the Lagerfeld exhibition opening at the Costume Institute, and floral dresses in mini and cocktail length that are as light as the feathers they were decorated with.
The second look, a strapless blue column that softly twists around the body to open up to a slender mermaid flare at the hem, has a deceptive simplicity and relates to the twisting and spiraling shapes on the fall 2024 runways. On the rack, but not in the look book, is a copper-sequin peacoat that could turn heads on arrival at a ball and at a post-gala bodega run. It’s a look for the city that never sleeps and a woman who knows how to party.
