Author, entrepreneur, visionary, and inventive pressure—Prabal Gurung has lengthy cemented his place as one of trend’s most iconic names. Since launching his eponymous label in 2009—and later introducing Atelier Prabal at the 2018 Met Gala—he has dressed some of the world’s most influential ladies, together with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Kamala Harris. Now, at a pivotal level in his profession, the celebrated designer is telling his story on his personal phrases, with the launch of his memoir earlier this May. “I felt the world was ready to hear it,” he shares.
Titled Walk Like a Girlthe memoir traces his formative years in Nepal, his time at an all-boys’ faculty, and the relentless bullying he endured—notably taunts like, “You walk like a girl.” Once a supply of confusion and ache, these phrases have since change into a supply of power, lending the ebook its title—an thought Gurung had been carrying in his again pocket for 18 years. By reclaiming the phrase, he transforms it right into a daring assertion of identification and resilience. “The insult never made sense to me,” he says, “because the strongest people I know—the ones who shaped my world—have always been women.”
Indeed, ladies have all the time stood at the centre of Gurung’s life and work. Shining amongst them is his mom, Durga Rana, whose affect he credit with shaping each his private values and inventive imaginative and prescient. “She is my north star. Every collection I design, every risk I take, is in conversation with her strength—a love letter to the woman who taught me that tenderness isn’t weakness, but a quiet act of rebellion.”
Today, Gurung joins Vogue Singapore at our annual landmark occasion, Next In Vogue—marking his return to the metropolis after seven years. Speaking to an viewers of 700 in an unique reside interview to Associate Deputy Editor, Maya Menon, the designer displays not solely on trend, however on advocacy, identification, and the power of staying grounded.
Prabal, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us right now. What has 2025 regarded like for you?
2025 has been a 12 months of reckoning and renewal. It’s been about returning to the essence of why I create to inform tales that transfer individuals, to construct magnificence with function, and to reimagine what trendy luxurious can imply. Between the launch of Walk Like A Girl and my Spring 2026 assortment, Angels in AmericaI’ve been residing in the rigidity between vulnerability and imaginative and prescient, the place artwork, emotion, and activism meet. It’s been a 12 months of remembering that success isn’t about arrival; it’s about evolution.
Let’s begin along with your memoir, Walk Like A Girlwhich launched in May this 12 months. It’s such a strong and deeply private ebook. Why did it really feel like the proper time to inform your story?
Because the world lastly felt able to hear and I used to be prepared to talk with out armor. For years, I’ve advised tales by means of cloth and type, by means of the language of silhouette and coloration. But Walk Like A Girl demanded my actual voice, unfiltered, unstitched. It’s about how we arrive in our wholeness, how we make peace with the components of ourselves the world as soon as advised us to cover. I needed to remind those who energy isn’t the absence of concern; it’s the resolution to stroll ahead with it, head held excessive.
Much of your ebook references the affect of your mom, your North Star. How has your relationship along with her formed the coronary heart of your journey?
My mom is my first and biggest muse. She taught me that dignity will not be about the place you come from however the way you carry your self, with grace, with braveness, with compassion. Growing up in Nepal, she would remind me that magnificence with out empathy is hole, and ambition with out gratitude is harmful. Her perception in me was radical; she didn’t simply elevate a son, she raised a believer.
“Those words became my revolution. They forced me to confront the world’s narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity, and to build a life that exists beyond them.”
The title of the ebook was impressed by an insult that was painfully hurled at you. You’ve reclaimed the phrase with power. Looking again, how did these moments form your understanding of gender, identification and energy?
Walk like a lady was meant to wound me however I turned it into my armour. Those phrases turned my revolution. They compelled me to confront the world’s slim definitions of masculinity and femininity, and to construct a life that exists past them. I’ve realized that true energy is fluid, that the strongest persons are those that embrace their contradictions, grace and grit, softness and metal. My journey has all the time been about honouring the female divine inside all of us. If you ask me what power appears to be like like, it appears to be like like strolling by means of the hearth, in heels, if needed and rising radiant.
When did you first really feel that you just had been hovering—that your voice and imaginative and prescient had really discovered their place in trend?
It wasn’t one second, however a gradual turning into. Perhaps it was once I noticed ladies from all walks of life, from Michelle Obama to Oprah to younger ladies and males, carrying my garments and feeling seen. That’s once I knew I wasn’t simply making clothes; I used to be making that means. My voice in trend crystallised once I stopped looking for permission to belong and started designing from reality, from the messy, magnificent human expertise. That’s once I began hovering.
Looking again, what have been some of the greatest triumphs and greatest challenges of your journey as a dressmaker and couturier?
The triumphs are straightforward to call, the reveals, the awards, the purple carpets. But the actual triumph is surviving in an trade that wasn’t constructed for individuals like me, and doing so with integrity intact. The problem has all the time been navigating visibility, being celebrated and but continually underestimated. But I’ve realized that endurance is an artwork type. My journey has been about remodeling rejection into resilience, and turning silence into storytelling. Every assortment is a brand new act of defiance, a reminder that magnificence and bravery can exist in the identical breath.
Inclusivity and variety are basic to your work. You’ve typically mentioned that everybody’s voice issues and your collections have a good time ladies of every kind of magnificence. How does that philosophy form the method you method design?
For me, inclusivity isn’t a pattern, it’s the soul of my work. When I design, I take into consideration the girl who has by no means seen herself on a runway, the one who’s been advised she’s an excessive amount of or not sufficient. My garments are a love letter to her. I imagine magnificence exists in plurality, in the kaleidoscope of identities, cultures, and tales. The position of a designer right now isn’t simply to embellish the world however to decode it, to carry up a mirror that displays everybody. That is the future of trend.
How would you outline the distinctive strengths of being an Asian designer? What do you see as the innate power of Asian creatives?
Our power lies in duality, in residing between worlds. Asian creatives carry centuries of heritage and the urgency of modernity inside them. We perceive nuance, we converse in layers, of fantasy, reminiscence, and that means. Being an Asian designer means navigating the delicate dance between reverence and reinvention. We are the bridge, between East and West, custom and disruption. That multiplicity offers us a perspective that’s deeply world and profoundly human.
What recommendation would you give to somebody beginning out in trend now?
Know why you’re right here. The world doesn’t want extra garments; it wants extra readability. Find your function earlier than your palette. Ask your self: what do I wish to say about the world by means of my work? Because expertise will get you observed, however reality will make you unforgettable. Be sort. Be relentless. Be curious. And keep in mind, success will not be about becoming in, it’s about standing out with grace.
At the coronary heart of your journey is one of hope and believing in your self. What would you say to those that are nonetheless studying to dream fearlessly?
I might inform them this: your goals are usually not unintentional; they’re ancestral. They carry the whispers of everybody who got here earlier than you and believed you can go additional. Fear will all the time be there, however so will religion. Choose religion. Every time. Hope will not be naïveté; it’s defiance. It’s trying at the world as it’s and daring to think about what it may very well be. If you’ll be able to dream with conviction and act with compassion, the world will finally meet you the place you stand.
“My greatest dream is not just to make clothes, but to make culture, to leave behind something that outlives the trends and reminds the world that Asia has always been, and will always be, the heartbeat of beauty and imagination.”
What’s one factor you’ve all the time needed to do however haven’t got down to do exactly but?
I wish to construct a inventive sanctuary, an area in Nepal the place artwork, trend, and philanthropy meet. A spot the place younger dreamers can collect, be taught, and create with out concern. It’s a imaginative and prescient I’ve carried for years, a circle of giving again, the place magnificence turns into a pressure for change.
But there’s one other dream that lives quietly in me: to create an Asian Museum in America, a cultural residence that celebrates the vastness of our heritage, the depth of our ancestry, and the brilliance of our creativity. I need a area that tells our tales with dignity and delight, the place the subsequent era of Asian artists, designers, filmmakers, and thinkers can see themselves mirrored not as outsiders, however as originators.
My biggest dream isn’t just to make garments, however to make tradition, to go away behind one thing that outlives the developments and reminds the world that Asia has all the time been, and will all the time be, the heartbeat of magnificence and creativeness.
What’s subsequent for Prabal Gurung?
The subsequent chapter is about scale, however with soul. I wish to take the world of Prabal Gurung world in a method that feels each highly effective and deeply private: couture that converses with conscience, glamour grounded in that means. I’m increasing into new territories; Asia, magnificence, jewellery, life-style, not as mere classes, however as extensions of a philosophy that believes magnificence and function can coexist.
My mission has by no means been simply to decorate ladies, males however to have a good time them ,their complexity, braveness, and grace. What’s subsequent is an evolution of a model, sure, but additionally of a motion. A world the place creativity turns into communion, the place trend doesn’t simply replicate tradition however redefines it by means of love, braveness, and radical hope.