Prabal Gurung’s show wasn’t just about a cute marketing tie-in with the American Girl doll company — though he is making “Stronger in Color” t-shirts for the dolls and their girls (and sending custom dolls to “his friends and muses,” which I feel like means Eva Chen’s daughter will have one on Instagram soon if she hasn’t already). Gurung’s show notes spoke of something less binary: “America has always been a woman — but she has not always been treated beautifully. What does it mean to be the most essential person in this country? What is feminine? What is American? And who gets to be it all — or none of it?” before quoting the great Robin Givhan’s line, “To be girlish is to be powerful, because power is redefined.” My one objection is when he said, in the Fashionista piece I used as my source for this, that for the first time in his career he’s noticing women taking ownership of their bodies no matter what size they are. I think he is rather late to that party.
