Prabal Gurung’s philosophy encompasses modern luxury, indelible style and an astute sense of glamour. Sustainability and social responsibility are central to his collection’s DNA. We spoke up with the designer, who is part of the CFDA Loves Sustainability shop at Fred Segal on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, on his approach to sustainability and growing optimism about the coexistence of sustainability and fashion.
What inspired you to embrace sustainability in the first place?
Sustainability has been a core part of our brand ethos from day one. With everything we do, we think about what our impact is, and how we can do better— for ourselves, our society, and our next generation.
How do you incorporate sustainable practices into your design process, and the way you run your company?
We choose to manufacture over 80 percent of our collection locally in New York City to uphold quality standards while supporting the local economy and minimizing our carbon footprint. In addition, we feel a strong social responsibility to create a sustainable future for Nepal. We work with artisans in Nepal for our cashmere knits, ensuring that at least 50 percent of our employees and partner employees are women, to create a more equal opportunity. In addition, I founded Shikshya Foundation Nepal in 2011 to provide education to underserved children in Nepal, to create brighter, more equitable and positive futures for those who would otherwise lack access. In the past nearly seven years, we’ve been able to provide a complete education to over 300 children, and impact more than 15,000 lives with our earthquake relief efforts.
Is the design approach for sustainable product different? How so?
While we are continuing to explore and experiment with more sustainable materials, our approach to design stays the same, which is to make beautiful pieces that can wear well throughout the years, an antithesis to the fast fashion trend so prevalent in our modern world.
What’s your advice for designers looking to become more sustainable?
While the definition of sustainability is incredibly layered, find what practices work best for you and your brand and start by focusing on those. No brand will become a zero-impact brand overnight, it’s just not a reality, but any change for the better helps. Finding likeminded partners is also very helpful. Certainly an initiative that proves we’re stronger in numbers.
Why is sustainability so important now, more than ever?
It is always been important to us, but we are living through an age of global warming, and we, the fashion industry, are the second biggest polluter in the world. If we are capable of causing so many problems, we also have to accept this responsibility and be capable of providing solutions, whether social, economic, or environmental.
