Prabal Gurung ss27

New York City | 09.12.2026 | 5:00 p.m. EST

If you’re looking for the luxury fashion equivalent of a plain blue canvas selling for $10,000 and being labeled as fine art, you have found the right collection. Ever since runways began occurring up until this point in time, fashion is constantly evolving, and designers find themselves having to design with an increasingly esoteric edge with each show, although Gurung proved this theory wrong. Gurung is notoriously feminist, focusing on the females themselves and how to best service them with his artwork; however, I think this collection was unintentionally belittling, if anything. When someone reads an article where the argument is so deeply engrained in between about four thousand words that you just lose the idea, the notice isn’t entertaining anymore nor substantiating. What’s the point anymore of a plain black silk dress with no structure and minimal accessories? Truly a game changer. I’m not being ignorant; I saw the tailoring, the invisible seams, and the cultural diversity, but this was supposed to be a fashion show, and impeccable tapestry without a captivating silhouette, fabrics, or patterns quickly becomes more similar to a Target runway, and there’s a reason there is no demand for one of those. Any plain Jane laborer in China understands basic sewing techniques, and, unconvincingly, even the ones based in New York that Gurung employs. Pass me the machine and I’ll whip up something more intriguing.

Principally, I watched in anticipation, waiting for the ball to drop, or the clothing to start looking like it belonged at New York Fashion Week; it never did. I saw blacks, and I saw silks. I saw whites, yellows, greens, and the same damn neckline and dress structure precisely four times too many. If the theme was supposed to be a ray of sunshine, why didn’t I see more radiant pieces, and why was Gurung so adamant about black? I concede that the show experienced a decent development; however, by the time I started seeing worthy designs, there were only five looks left. The mood matched the identity of the brand, which, in part, elects my respect, although I don’t think that the identity matches one of a luxury brand. The collection demanded attention, but unfortunately, the designs didn’t individually accomplish that. The looks felt vapid, as if I was listening to a friend go on about getting back together with her useless boyfriend again, as if I hadn’t heard the information a billion times before. The same mood applied to the clothing because by look 23—something was looking familiar, which would’ve been fine if the repeated silhouette actually adhered to Gurung’s claims about admiring women, but dressing them in an outfit this hideous was not convincing me. Prabal Gurung’s foundation relies on empowering females, but with his styling, I could barely tell if those were women on the runway. Maybe he took the meaning of feminism too literally and is trying to merge womenswear and menswear. Either way, the impeccable tailoring is an expectation, and the element of conviction is a requirement that was simply not fulfilled.

In six months, these clothes will unfortunately be released from the hands of production into retail. It’s a shame how many pieces they will need on the rack to use up the space, you know, because it seems like Gurung is afraid of interfacing, and how many of those pieces will still be sitting on the same racks by SS28 because nobody wanted to walk around in a silk apron. Additionally, I rarely saw the emphasis placed conventionally. Instead of the timeless fit waist, or broad shoulder, we were given… knees and ankles? And this is not to be confused with thoughtful experimentation, because it did not reach the threshold of fashion pioneering. I saw many tasteful items, but the issue isn’t that they look like they were put together by a four-year-old; that is exactly the problem, that it looks like a boring seventy-year-old constructed these—and nobody wants to look like their outfit was designed by someone who’s breast milk is probably powdered.

I noticed a tendency to revert back to simple shapes, and at times I would randomly see a nipple. For my past reviews as well, it appears that there is a circulating trend to solely create a blouse out of tulle. For those of you who don’t know, tulle is virtually see-through. I’m completely for emphasizing the female stature; I love to do it every day when I style my own outfits, but this is a completely different phenomenon than exposing the female stature. The show quickly lost its credibility when it could barely stick to a pattern of to use, not to use (fabric). It’s as if they expended all of their resources on a quarter of their pieces, and for the rest, they just decided to look at the archives. They should have budgeted better, I guess. Maybe next time, they’ll put their math skills to use and average out the fabric so the pieces don’t end up looking warped. The construction was technically something I would praise, but I think that it was too banal to contribute to the already nonexistent character the show had. While, bluntly, I didn’t like this show, there are a few things that I have the capability to appreciate. For example, in a sea of monochromatic dresses, the sequin-adorned floral patterns were a nice addition to the banality of the rest of the looks.

LOOK 37 — ★★★★★

What it is + why it matters.

The moment this red dress hit my eyes, I thought that the fashion show was instantly worth holding out, is something I would never say. Individually, this dress was just okay, which is a step up from the painful tier. At least here, I saw a change in attitude, a contrast from the previous looks, which were basically plain basics.

The shoe choices shifted between the same couple concepts, plain pointed heels, or adorned sandals. Either way, they were so excruciatingly pedestrian that they were almost worse than the clothes themselves. Almost. I think the only thing that was consistent with what I expected from brand identity was the makeup. I think when women choose to completely conceal their features with makeup, essentially using it instead of a mask instead of a tool, we hide our true beauty. It is one of my firm beliefs that fashion shows should focus on the clothes, and not distract with unnecessary makeup, and this was one of the few things that Gurung did correctly. I finally can give my red pen a break; it’s running out of ink. The main issue was that nothing felt visionary, and everything felt recycled.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: What’s not to be borrowed? Everything had been used before, so it’s difficult to pinpoint a specific pop culture reference. It’s like picking out every music song that has the note C in it.

THE VERDICT — 3/10

The only thing I can really nod to was the tailoring, and the last few looks. I do have to say that the addition of the feathers at the end had enough impractical to bring up the average from a one to a three. Overall, though, I’m disappointed in how little occurred with this show; it’s hardly correct to even call it a show at this point. It’s more comparable to a glance. In comparison to what I had thought was a mediocre show before, Proenza really knocked Gurung out of the park.