Prabal Gurung said he approached his striking new Resort collection as if it was a "one-stop shop from morning to evening." The idea, he explained, was prompted by all the traveling he s been doing to trunk shows in places as far-flung as Singapore and Toronto. It s smart business to listen to customers needs, but if Gurung embraced practicality, he didn t abandon his creative side.
Inspired by a show of the British artist Matthew Stone s work at The Hole gallery, the designer covered just about every surface in the wide-ranging collection—from tees and sweatshirts to floor-length gala dresses—with prints or jacquards designed to evoke Stone s brushstrokes. The prints and jacquards came in vivid shades of red or blue, sometimes mingled together, and they turned the clothes into moving canvases. Color-blocking likewise gave chunky sweaters and cotton shirtdresses a bold look. Gurung added panels of black stretch into the waistband of a tweed sheath not just for graphic appeal, but also for shaping purposes—a customer request handled with confident panache. Speaking of panache, a pantsuit, its jacket lapel-less save for a sharp ruffle from buttonhole to hem, had flair to spare. The fact that it was navy made it stand out all the more amid the sea of prints; the same went for a strapless cocktail dress topped by an upper-arm-covering capelet in the same shade of midnight blue jacquard.
