From the Himalayas to New York, fashion designer Prabal Gurung has built a global brand rooted in heritage, precision and purpose. In his memoir Walk Like A Girl, he reflects on identity, femininity and the responsibility of building institutions beyond fashion. In an interview with Sugandha Mukherjee, the 46-year-old speaks about cultural duality, the theatre of the Met Gala and why Indian craft is not a limitation but an advantage. Edited excerpts:
Q1: Your memoir Walk Like A Girl is deeply personal. You’ve often spoken about growing up between Nepal and India before building your label in New York. How did those early cultural experiences shape your aesthetic and your sense of identity in fashion?
Gurung: Growing up between Nepal and India gave me dual lenses very early in life. Nepal gave me mysticism, mountains, silence, spirituality. India gave me vibrancy, colour, cinema, texture, contradiction. Both gave me resilience.
When you grow up in the Himalayas, scale changes your perspective. You understand humility in the presence of something vast.
When you grow up in South Asia, you understand ornamentation, ritual, craft, and the emotional power of clothing. Moving to New York added discipline and modernity to that foundation. It sharpened my sense of structure, tailoring, and business. My aesthetic is therefore never singular. It is emotional yet precise. Ornate yet controlled. Sensual yet architectural.
Q2: The title Walk Like A Girl feels both political and personal. How do you define strength and femininity today, especially in an industry that still struggles with stereotypes?
Gurung: Strength, to me, is not aggression. It is self-possession. For many years, femininity was framed as something decorative or secondary. But the women who raised me were neither ornamental nor fragile. They were pillars. They carried families, communities, entire ecosystems of responsibility. Today, I define femininity as emotional intelligence, resilience, empathy, and clarity. It is not softness in the sense of weakness, it is softness in the sense of depth. In fashion, we still wrestle with outdated binaries. But I believe the most powerful designers are those who expand definitions rather than reinforce them.
Q3: You’ve become a regular at the Met Gala. How do you approach the Met differently from a runway show? Does spectacle outweigh wearability there?
Gurung: The Met Gala is narrative theatre. A runway show is a chapter in an ongoing conversation with your customer. The Met is a single, highly concentrated moment of storytelling. Spectacle is part of it, but it must be an intelligent spectacle. The most memorable Met looks are not just dramatic, they are layered with meaning, craft, and cultural reference.
When I dress women like Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Michelle Yeoh, Shakira, Demi Moore, or artistes like Diljit (Dosanjh), my intention is never just visual impact. It is authorship. The garment must speak to who they are and what the moment represents. It must carry symbolism, technical precision, and deep respect for the body wearing it. The Met allows you to be operatic. It invites grandeur and risk. But even opera requires discipline. Structure must support drama. Craft must anchor spectacle. Without that, it becomes a costume. With it, it becomes a cultural memory.
Q4: Having built your brand in New York, how would you describe the difference between the Indian fashion ecosystem and the Western one?
Gurung: The Western ecosystem, particularly New York, is infrastructure-driven. It is built around retail systems, investor frameworks, and global distribution channels. There is a strong emphasis on scalability and business architecture. India is rich in craft and cultural capital. The design language is often emotionally layered and technically extraordinary. What excites me is that India is now at a crossroads. There is ambition to think beyond weddings and beyond domestic markets. With the right business frameworks, the creative potential is immense. India has heritage. The West has systems. The future belongs to those who can master both.
Q5: What excites you about contemporary Indian designers, and where must the industry evolve?
Gurung: What excites me most is confidence. I see a generation of Indian designers who are no longer seeking permission. They are not diluting their identity to fit into Western frameworks. They are claiming their heritage, their textiles, their silhouettes, and their histories with pride on international platforms.
In terms of evolution, I believe the conversation around global luxury often becomes narrowly defined. Yes, long-term brand building, financial discipline, infrastructure, and strategic storytelling are essential for those who wish to scale internationally. Institutions are not built seasonally; they are built patiently and structurally. But I also think we must be careful not to define success only through global expansion. Global scale is one form of achievement. It is not the only one. Sometimes, rapid globalisation can pressure designers to standardise, to streamline, to industrialise in ways that risk eroding the very craft traditions that make Indian fashion extraordinary. Craft requires time, human touch. If growth comes at the cost of identity, then something invaluable is lost.
The future, in my view, lies in balance. Building strong business systems while protecting the soul of the work. Expanding thoughtfully rather than aggressively. The talent in India is immense. The opportunity is not simply to compete globally, but to redefine what global luxury can look like when it is grounded in heritage and integrity.
Q6: Do you believe South Asian designers are now being embraced for their craft, or is there still tokenism?
Gurung: There has undoubtedly been meaningful progress. There is more visibility today. More South Asian designers are showing on global platforms, dressing international figures, shaping conversations. That presence matters. It shifts perception. It creates possibility. Real embrace happens when craft is not seen as “inspiration” but as authorship. When designers are recognised not simply for aesthetic contribution, but also for leadership, vision, and building institutions.
South Asian craft has influenced global fashion for centuries. The textiles, the embroidery techniques, the dyeing processes, they have always been foundational. What feels different now is that designers are telling their own stories with clarity and confidence. I prefer to focus on that empowerment. Representation is evolving. And I believe the most powerful shifts are happening not through confrontation, but through consistency, quality, and conviction.
Q7: After everything you’ve achieved, is there a dream collaboration or milestone you’re still chasing?
Gurung: Oh gosh, there is so much more to do and achieve, I feel like I have just scratched the surface. I feel deep gratitude for the milestones I’ve been fortunate to experience building a brand from the ground up, being recognised by my peers, serving on the board and as vice chair at the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), and dressing extraordinary people on global stages. None of that is lost on me. I know how improbable this journey has been. But the older I get, the more I understand that milestones are moments, it’s feeting. What endures is impact. What matters more is contribution. Not in a grand sense, but in the quiet ways, in who you mentor, who you support, what systems you help build, and how you protect the craft and people around you.
What excites me now is not a single collaboration or headline, but the idea of building something that outlasts me. Institutions that nurture talent. Systems that create access for designers who may not have proximity to power. Continued investment in education in Nepal through my foundation and across South Asia, because opportunity should not be limited by geography.
Creatively, I remain deeply curious. I still feel like a student. I am still learning from young designers, from artisans, from collaborators across disciplines. Fashion intersects with art, cinema, architecture, and technology. There is so much left to explore. If there is a milestone I am still pursuing, it is growth, not just commercially, but personally.