Prabal Gurung Frees Women From the Constraints of Corsetry for Spring 2027

At the heart of Prabal Gurung’s Spring 2027 collection, entitled “Ray of Light,” lies a sense of freedom. “Not freedom as a slogan or anything like that, freedom to inhabit your body and to have a sovereignty over it,” Gurung told Fashionista backstage ahead of his runway show on Saturday. This season, the designer is freeing the Prabal Gurung woman from a corset’s constriction in favor of gauzy gowns and loose-fitting cotton sateen dresses.

For Spring 2027, the designer began by reflecting on different women a world apart from one other: the Nepali women visiting a dhunge dhara (a public stone tap for bathing and washing clothes) and a female Brooklynite dancing with a feather boa at a Zero Chill rave. Though these women may seem completely different on paper, Gurung recalled noticing the raver, who was “completely abandoned in her own joy,” donning the marigolds and jasmines that Nepali women often wear, and something clicked. “I was like, my goodness, two different places, New York and Nepal, but the same feeling,” he said.

The opening look — a strapless white dress knotted around the hips — captures the sense of nonchalance Gurung was chasing. “It almost looks like she’s wrapped in bedsheets,” he said. “It holds her perfectly. It doesn’t confine her.” A parade of elegant floor-length dresses followed, with some designs featuring sensual cutouts in the back. Marigold and jasmine motifs fill the collection, showing up in an intricately beaded jacket, three-dimensional embroidered dresses and breezy organza chiffons.

“I’m trying to release the woman that I’m designing for from all the corsets and everything,” Gurung said. “There are a few of them, but [the inspiration is] just this ability for her to feel at ease, feel sensual.”

Ahead, see all the looks from Prabal Gurung’s Spring 2027 collection.