Prabal Gurung, a Bill Blass alum, knows swans because they used to flock to that house. He knows just as well what his own customers want and need – and it’s not sweatpants. “We have always had a small private company,” the designer explained during 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 a surge in interest in his most glamorous creations. He recently visited India, where he noted that many traditional weddings have evolved into a “Western night.” Taking both situations into account, he launched his Atelier collection last year. After successfully testing it at retail, he is ready to take Collection One public.
Unlike his ready-to-wear collections, which are built around a story, Atelier focuses on specific occasions and more traditional silhouettes. “When it comes to evening, not much [of our clients] want to look trendy; most of them want to look beautiful. From my time with Bill until now, that hasn’t changed… If you look back at the photos of Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn, for example, [their style] lasted forever; it wasn’t trendy, and that’s my goal,” he said.
And so this collection includes several full-skirted ‘princess’ dresses (one in Robin’s Egg blue with black polka dots is particularly charming); the requisite corsets, both coquettish and downright sexy; columns with intricate hand decorations; and sari-inspired silhouettes, which are a Gurung signature. More forward-looking in fashion are a version of the bell-skirted dress Anok Yai wore to the opening of the Lagerfeld exhibition 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 gently twists around the body and opens to a sleek 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 lookbook, is a peacoat with copper sequins that could turn heads when arriving 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.
