Prabal Gurung puts a loving spotlight on the world’s misfits

NEW YORK — Prabal Gurung sent his New York Fashion Week models down a long, stark runway Saturday in the shadow of the United Nations wearing an explosion of sheers and colors as an ode to the misfits of the world who are “often watched and monitored, scrutinized but unseen.” The designer told The Associated Press he discovered the building occupied by U.N. consulates and nonprofits while on a bike ride on Manhattan’s East Side. “I needed to be near the reminder of the U.N. that our job in fashion is not done until we are alert and vigilant.” Over the last year, Gurung said, he found his hope and optimism fading as the “status quo, the patriarchy,” seemed ever more unnerved over those who resist “regressive values.” To find some joy again, and belonging, he wrote in his show notes, he ventured into New York City’s outer boroughs, where “the style, the confidence, the nightlife and these younger generations evoked a familiar but new sense of unabashed authenticity that reignited the same fire my mother gave me as a boy.” So how did that translate into his latest spring collection on his clean white runway? In a white corseted jumpsuit and a barely there mint blouse worn with a black leather lambskin mini skirt by Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris. Gurung’s sheer cobalt blue trousers worn with an equally sheer long-sleeve blouse in chartreuse that opened to reveal a black bralette moved with the model as so many of his liquid looks did.