ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: NYFW | Prabal Gurung Spring/Summer 2013

Prabal Gurung's look for spring is breezy, loose pants that hit at the ankle were worn with sheer tops that had trains of fabric trailing behind. Ruffled chiffon capes draped over fitted cocktail frocks and short sleeve tees. Drop-waist tank dresses hung loose with scores of feathers floating along the hem. These were absolutely clothes you could live in. Gurung had also been influenced by London-based Indian artist Anish Kapoor. “As much as I love his work, what I was really intrigued by was how parallel his life and mine were,” says Gurung, explaining that both had left their South Asian homelands. Hence, he included looks that referenced Kapoor’s own style, like a cornflower blue dancing dress over slim, dark pants. The prettiest pieces came toward the end: poufy, sleeveless cocktail dresses in a red-and-white swirl print or metallic blue floral.

Enjoy the PG Spring/Summer 2013 Fashion Show at the end of this post! LoL, Andrea

"A shaft of light cuts through the gloom from the back of the Pier 57 garage; Joan Smalls stomps onto the runway-battle-ready-suited in white and trailing chiffon behind her. The story at Prabal Gurung this season, at least to a certain extent, was to be one of contrasts.

A sprawling red print on a white drop-waist cocktail gown felt like a new stamp on the Park Avenue tropes which have been so integral to Gurung’s success as a New York designer; black crocodile accents placed marabou feathers into a new context. Delicate digital flower prints on another dress melted and twisted into a graphic spine print or was it a tire track? A fully-sheer charcoal blouse hovered beneath a brocade tuxedo jacket. These edgy marriages aside, Prabal’s tried-and-true signatures were not to be missed: the all-over print set on Julia Nobis, paired with a set of black space-age frames, sent gasps far back into the standing section. If a frilly white evening gown or a simple tee-and-trouser ensemble came gliding down the runway, it emerged nonetheless from the dark void behind the runway lights and out onto the gritty warehouse concrete. ...

It is needless to say that Mr. Prabal Gurung has little to prove as a New York designer who can not only conjure up a runway fantasy, but move clothes off racks. Simon Doonan and Linda Fargo of Barneys and Bergdorf’s respectively looked keenly on from the front row; starlet Hailee Steinfeld gushed to an interviewer after the show; street style darlings Michelle Harper, Elena Perminova, Giovanna Battaglia, and the inimitable Anna Dello Russo caused a photo frenzy outside as they strode out in a pack, some of them dressed in head-to-toe Prabal Gurung looks. Indeed, the designer’s effort for Spring/Summer 2013 marks a new confidence in his craft as we began to witness it during last season’s darker-than-usual outing; it is if anything refreshing to see a young talent claim his right to experiment. If the subversive elements of this collection felt more snuck-in than boldly informative of the work at large, their visibility raises the stakes for Fall/Winter 2013. After seasons as New York fashion’s bright young Man of the Hour, could he be on the brink of Golden Boy Gone Bad?" by Hari Nef /Source: Prabal Gurung