Prabal Gurung brings 'sindoor' to New York Fashion Week runway

Designers often bring their most creative and most controversial game to the runway during fashion weeks, be it in New York or Milan or Paris. But, Singapore-born Nepali-American fashion designer Prabal Gurung had something else in mind for his latest NYFW show. The designer wanted to embrace his Hindu roots while flaunting his gorgeous designs on the runway, so he asked the models to wear sindoor and flaunt it like a queen. The results have taken social media by storm!

While showcasing his new line for Fall/Winter 2023 on Friday (February 10), he paid tribute to his roots and his homeland Nepal by making fashion meet tradition. His models wore sindoor in various colours, from saffron to burgundy and dusty pinks to white and even black along with the traditional red indoor. The colour of sindoorwas in sync with the outfits the models were wearing.

For those unaware,sindoor is a traditional vermilion red or orange-red coloured cosmetic powder usually worn by married Hindu women along the part of their hairline. In Hindu communities, it is a visual marker of a woman's marital status and ceasing to wear it usually implies widowhood.

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Through his designs, he also explored the Buddhist concept of "anichya", which means impermanence. In butterfly motifs, wool jackets and hues of vermilion, saffron, burgundy and dusty pinks, Gurung was thinking of his homeland, Nepal, where he hasn't been since before the COVID-19pandemic. He was motivated by a 10-day meditative retreat he recently experienced to "silence everything".

"In Nepal, we talk about it all the time, what is present and how soon it can go," Gurung told The Associated Press in a backstage interview. "And there’s actually an optimism to that, especially during these challenging times." The idea, in part, was finding hope "in the dark places".

His silhouettes were sharper and longer this time around. His asymmetry challenged the idea of harmony. He draped softly and provided sharp angles at the same time. There were fluid, gliding skirts, wool jackets and glitzy golds and crystals.

In short, Gurung explained, New York Fashion Week for him was a "magical, mystery journey. An inward spiritual journey"taken at night back home in Nepal.

Moody, yes, but hopeful in turquoise and emerald silk organza, a black leather cropped jacket with a pink shearling collar and his butterfly print in a high-low, high-neck dress of black and white, and another in sheer red and black with sexy cut-outs at the hip.

There was an oversized sweater in an ivory and yellow butterfly knit and a pink and scarlet embroidered cocoon coat. "But there's a lot of strength to it,"Gurung said.

All grew from the silence on his 10-day vipassana retreat, where reading, phones and exercise were banned. On the third day, a painted lady butterfly landed on his window, and it gave him something to ponder.

Having grown up with "impermanence",Gurung said, he wanted to embrace the notion that nothing is fixed but constant shifts need not be feared. They must be embraced, he said, and he's got just the right clothes for the job. Kelsea Ballerini, who stunned in a yellow gown by Gurung at the Grammys, was among his front-row guests. She was accompanied by Becky G and Alyah Chanelle Scott.

(With inputs from agencies)