NEW YORK (AP) — Designer Prabal Gurung has all the time been a storyteller. First, it was by the colourful, Nepal-inspired designs that helped him discover early success within the cutthroat style world. Now, he’s sharing his life story in phrases together with his daring new memoir, “Stroll Like A Woman.”
The e-book, out Tuesday from Penguin Random Home, traces his South Asian roots — born in Singapore, he grew up in Nepal and hung out in India — and tough childhood. He would finally transfer to New York to check on the Parsons College of Design, interning for Donna Karan and later working for Cynthia Rowley and Invoice Blass. He began his personal label in 2009, and has dressed celebrities together with Michelle Obama, Kate Middleton, Zoe Saldaña and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Gurung, 46, says processing his childhood experiences with an abusive father at residence and bullies and predators at college with a view to write and file the e-book was the toughest factor he’s ever completed.
“I actually hadn’t instructed too many individuals, not even my shut buddies. To relive that half and to jot down it down … it was harrowing, I received’t lie,” Gurung instructed The Related Press.
“It actually introduced again so many recollections and … it’s much less of an anger. It’s extra just like the injustice of the scenario. Greater than the rest, I simply needed to return to that child and like, give him a hug … and simply be like, ‘You’re gonna be OK,’” Gurung stated, choking again tears.
(Picture by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
From Nepal to New York
Regardless of being teased and struggling academically, Gurung all the time thought he was destined for an even bigger life: “I don’t know, I simply had it in me. I believe it was survival additionally a variety of occasions.”
One brilliant mild that saved him going was the unwavering love and help of his mom, Durga Rana. She’s the hero of the e-book, encouraging him to observe his passions and discover pleasure wherever potential, regardless that his curiosity in style and experimentation with make-up and female clothes was extremely unconventional in Nepal on the time.
Surviving a wedding with an untrue, abusive husband, she basically raised three younger youngsters on her personal. Rana developed a number of profitable companies and finally acquired into politics, telling her children to make use of their platforms to make an affect.
“She’s a blueprint of my energy. Watching her carry the burden of the world with such class, you understand, was actually inspiring,” Gurung stated. “The best way she constructed the world round us, unbowed, unapologetic, was, I’d say, my first lesson in resilience.”
A deep love of girls
The e-book’s title and canopy are a purposeful nod to the designer’s love of girls. “Stroll Like a Woman” was one thing children stated to tease him at college.
“I simply didn’t perceive it as an insult at first as a result of I believe ‘Nice, I’m like my mom, my sister, all these girls.’ ‘Marvel Girl’ was my favourite motion hero, and ‘Charlie’s Angels,’” Gurung stated.
He determined to reclaim the phrase and selected his energy pose for the quilt in honor of Rosie the Riveter and different “iconic, feminist girls.”
Cindi Leive, the previous editor-in-chief of Glamour and Self magazines, championed Gurung early on due to his authenticity on and off the runway.
“It grew to become clear to me that he was extremely not simply in style as style, however within the girls who would put on the garments,” Leive instructed the AP. “I additionally observed that each time I’d have a dialog with him, he would find yourself speaking about his mother.”
Gurung couldn’t wait to get to the U.S.; he felt instantly at home in New York, a place he sees as the best culmination of people, cultures and creative freedom, he writes. But he was surprised and disappointed by the general lack of diversity on runways and at social events.
“My recollection is he was one of the first to use models who more closely resembled the diversity of people that you actually see in America … in size, race and everything else,” Leive said.
Diljit Dosanjh and Prabal Gurung attend the 2025 Met Gala. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Gurung’s runway casting was only part of his commitment to inclusion. Now a Met Gala mainstay, Gurung uses his platform to speak out about injustice and women’s rights issues, which, at the beginning of his career was not a popular stance, leaving him feeling “like a lone ranger.” He recalled the emails and messages he used to get saying, “Oh, stay in your lane, you’re a fashion designer … not a politician.”
“He was very open about his support for issues that mattered to women, long before it was a thing. Eventually, I think, every designer had some, you know, slogan T-shirt proclaiming their support of women’s causes. He did it before anybody, but it went way deeper than the T-shirt,” Leive said.
“I’ll never forget when Cindi Leive at a dinner said to me — right after George Floyd’s murder and all of that stuff that happened, the Black Lives Matter movement,” Gurung said. “She pulled me aside, she said, ‘How does it feel now … to see the world catching up to you? You’ve been at it for such a long time.’ I didn’t even think about it.”
Authenticity, on and off the runway
Part of Gurung’s story is being a proud immigrant, and his connection to his Nepali roots come through in his designs. Indian-born American designer Bibhu Mohapatra has been friends with Gurung since they were both starting out, bonding over their South Asian roots. He says Gurung is “naturally curious” and has always been a great storyteller.
“Whether he’s doing a jewelry collection, whether it’s a piece of clothing or a whole collection, it’s always sort of backed by receipts of his experiences that are his tools of telling a story … whether about craft, whether it’s about color, whether it’s about his heritage, or simply people in his life, the designer said. “You believe it because it comes from a very authentic place.”
Mohapatra also admires Gurung’s “naturally rebellious streak” and his courage to speak out for causes he values.
“He’s brave to be the first one or join the force with people who are starting a movement,” the designer said.
Mohapatra also suggests Gurung’s spiritual side and roots add to his work and his ability to empathize: “There is an aspect of slowing down, really attention to the core and looking back at the path and … there is a bit more spirituality woven into the daily lives of people of Nepal.”
Gurung says he hopes the book resonates with readers and encourages them to share their own stories.
“I would like folks to actually perceive that their existence, their story is worthy of being instructed, that they don’t have to cover themselves, they’re not invisible,” he stated. “I do know I’m on the quilt, it’s my identify and my story, but it surely actually is a narrative about, for, and of so many individuals.”