Prabal Gurung, Saks Fifth Avenue Co-Host Cocktail Party to Celebrate the Designer’s New Book

Prabal Gurung‘s new memoir, “Walk Like a Girl,” was celebrated Thursday night at a cocktail party hosted by Saks Fifth Avenue and Gurung at the Rooftop at Zero Bond.

Among those who attended were Roopal Patel, Phillip Lim, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, Chloe Flower, Chloe King, Fernando Garcia, Isabel Wilkinson Schorr, Laura Kim, Lynn Yaeger, Fern Mallis, Mickey Boardman, Pritika Swarup, Radhika Jones, Sarita Choudhury and Tina Leung.

Guests enjoyed “It Started in Kathmandu,” “Mumbai Rush” and “Saks and the City” signature cocktails and nibbled on tuna crispy rice and sliders. Signed copies of “Walk Like a Girl” were artfully displayed throughout the lounge vignettes, alongside custom coasters and napkins featuring powerful quotes from the book.

The book tells the story of Gurung who grew up as a queer boy in Nepal and India and came to New York to pursue the American dream, only to encounter discrimination as he rose within the ranks of high fashion and high society.

Gurung told WWD he’s very good about talking about his work, whom he dresses and his inspiration, but, “I’ve never talked about myself, so this is the first time.”

To relive those things that he’s been through “was very cathartic,” he said.

“Just to look back to the fact that I’ve built a community of friends and people I love and admire, who have been there for me. It really was a reminder in gratitude and I’m so grateful,” said the designer, noting some parts were very difficult to write, such as those about his family and things he went through at school.

“The title came to me when I was in high school. I was an effeminate kid, and people would say ‘You walk like a girl.’ It was very pejoratively used,” he said.

“I didn’t understand ‘walking like a girl’ was a problem because I was raised by a single mother, surrounded by women. I didn’t understand the concept, like anything feminine was a bad thing. I used to wear my sister’s dresses and all that. I get it, but in this hyper-masculine world that is so much about power and brute force, I felt this feminine-leaning ideas are softer ideas and something I grew up with.”

Gurung said he didn’t know it would become a book, and he wrote things down and sent it to his agent at CAA, who really liked it. And they sent it to Viking Penguin, and they loved it.

So how does he feel now that it’s out in the world?

“My friends didn’t know what I’d been through. I’m not really open, I realized. I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me. I wanted it to be a book, that if I can do it, so can anyone else,” Gurung said. He said this isn’t a book about how to be a fashion designer. “It’s about how to be free.”

So how did the idea of Saks and Gurung getting together to cohost a cocktail party come about?

Gurung recalled that he first met Saks’ Patel when she was at Bergdorf Goodman and he was at Bill Blass. He was having a cigarette outside 550 Seventh Avenue and was telling Patel about all the challenges he was facing, and she said, ‘Why don’t you start your own line?’”

Patel, senior vice president, fashion director, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, said: “We’ve long been champions of Prabal’s vision and his work at Saks. We were one of the first retailers to carry the collection, and Prabal and I have known each other since the beginning of our careers.”

“Tonight is not just a celebration about Prabal’s work as a designer. But he does so much for the community.

“Prabal is more than a designer — he has used his platform in the fashion industry not only to create exquisite collections, but also to champion inclusion, identity and purpose. Our clients are drawn to his creative vision because of the way it empowers individuality, and we’re proud to honor this milestone in his career,” Patel said.

Patel said she’s read excerpts, but hasn’t read the whole book yet. “I have it reserved for my Memorial Day weekend reading, uninterrupted,” she said.