All worth the trouble, Prabal Gurung

On the morning of April 26 2010 I awoke to a buzzing phoneThe stream of texts pouring in read ldquoOMG CONGRATULATIONS YOU DID ITrdquoI clicked the link a friend sent and slowly saw the First Ladyrsquos face appear and as the rest of her image downloaded I caught a glimpse of the ldquoPrabal redrdquo at her neckline and then my dress filled the screen Michelle Obama was walking into the White House Correspondentsrsquo Dinner holding President Obamarsquos hand wearing my dress I was blinking back tears as I thought ldquoOf all the racks of clothes to choose from she selected this dress which I had once again specifically draped to resemble my motherrsquos sarirdquoMichelle was the epitome of style and substance and she was married to a man who was beginning to redefine patriarchy His slogan during his presidential campaign about the audacity of hope epitomised why I wanted to come to America And the Obama White House was so much closer to my own idea of what it meant to be American than anything Irsquod ever seen By choosing this dress she was choosing meThat same day I got an email from someone at Vogue inviting me to the Met Gala preparty cocktail hour Going to the Met Gala was another item on my vision board The event started in 1948 as a fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has since grown to become one of the most famous and glamorous fundraisers in the world mdash thanks to Anna Wintour who has been the host since the midnineties It always takes place on the first Monday in May and Vogue controls the coveted guest listEvery year therersquos a theme and in 2010 it was ldquoAmerican Woman Fashioning a National Identityrdquo Joining Anna Wintour as cohosts that year were Patrick Robinson and Oprah WinfreyWhat most people donrsquot know is that there are several tiers of invitations to the Met Gala This invitation was exclusively for the preparty cocktail hour It meant I could walk the red carpet but I couldnrsquot attend the dinner and afterparty Hilary Rhodarsquos stylist had selected a blackandred minidress from my third collection for the young model to wear so this invitation meant that I could walk Hilary up the famed red carpet to the Metropolitan Museum of Art This was the next step in realising my dream not only to get invited to the dinner but also to host my own tableThe red dress that then US First Lady Michelle Obama wore to the 2010 White House Correspondentsrsquo Association Dinner bringing global recognition to the designer Prabal Gurung right Actress Zoe Saldana was among Gurungrsquos earliest celebrity supporters often seen wearing his creations at events such as at the 2012 CFDA Fashion Awards as seen aboveAnd I had been manifesting it since my time at Bill Blass where I had always advocated that the brand should be represented at the Met Gala but Michael loathed the idea After he left I reached out to Lauren Santo Domingo who was hosting the afterparty that year and asked if I could bring Zoe Saldana to that as my dateZoe and I had become close by then mdash she had done only two small films but I knew in my gut that she was going to be a superstar She was a wildly elegant gorgeous and funny Dominican girl from the Bronx who was determined to make it in Hollywood where there were so few Latinx roles From the moment I met her I adored her She reminded me of myselfLauren said yes and I dressed Zoe in a beautiful Bill Blass ball gown and myself in a tuxedo We had dinner at a chic restaurant mdash a Dominican girl and a Nepali boy mdash on the Upper East Side where we stood out among the crowd of Upper East Siders There everyone commented ldquoYou look so beautiful Where are you goingrdquoldquoThe Met Galardquo we said smilingIt was all very magicalThat evening over dinner we talked about our dreams mdash and heart aches She was filming Star Trek and had been cast in Avatar but neither had come out yet I told her I wanted to leave Bill Blass and launch my own namesake line one day That was the night we made our pact I would dress her for her first red carpet appearance and she would come to my first show And then we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the after party where I saw all the usual suspects mdash socialites editors models celebrities mdash whom I always ran into at all the galas Some of them had become good friends over the years and some remained acquaintances All polite nice sweet but once again every person except for Zoe the actress Joy Bryant very few others and me were white I wasnrsquot disheartened or dejected Though I do remember coming back home that night and thinking to myself ldquoIs this ever going to change Is white America the only America to be represented in this haute couture high fashion spacerdquoBeing invited to any portion of the Met Gala gives you access to the most exclusive curation of creative people mdash designers movie stars artists and musicians I was still in the early stages of building my brand so having a moment on the red carpet with Hilary Rhoda wearing my black white and red sculpted minidress that was a hybrid of oldschool couture meets the new modern world was huge In a sea filled with gowns and trains she looked young and hip and totally glamorousWhen we arrived at the Met that evening I took a deep breath The stairs leading up to the museum were lined with photographers I took Hilaryrsquos arm and we began to ascend surrounded by the sounds of clicking cameras and different names being shouted interlaced with the syncopated pops of flashes I focused on each step one foot in front of the other thinking how far I had come from playing with paper dolls to sketching in notebooks to getting on that plane to Parsons and now making my way toward the pinnacle of the fashion world I was halfway up the stairs when I heard a photographer shout ldquoPrabalrdquoI was shocked as I did not expect anyone to know who I was And yet as I turned and posed it also felt totally natural like I was meant to be thereOnce inside the museum I began weaving through the glamorous crowd and recognised so many faces from Taylor Swift to Sarah Jessica Parker I was mesmerised just soaking it all in when I heard someone else shout my nameldquoPrabalrdquoThis time it was Oprah Winfrey standing with Anna Wintour I walked over to her to say helloldquoHe was in my closet a couple of weeks agordquo Oprah said with a big smile ldquoAnd Michelle She looked amazing Congratulations you must be so thrilledrdquoI was Particularly because she was saying all of this in front of AnnaldquoIrsquom so proud of you Prabalrdquo Oprah added ldquoYoursquore doing it Yoursquore really doing itrdquoAnd then she gave me a tight hug It was the most generous and loving moment We chatted a bit more and then I started to wander through the crowd saying hello to the people I knew including magazine editors and a few famous designers I felt like Cinderella at the ball caught up in the magic of it all When people started to move toward the dining room I realised that the clock had struck midnight for my fairytale story As much as I wished that I could follow everyone in my invitation limited me to the cocktail party not the dinner I did not want to face the red carpet again People were still arriving and I thought it would be best to slip out unnoticed I pulled a waiter aside and asked discreetly ldquoIs there a back exitrdquoHe looked at me confused and I explained ldquoIrsquom not going to the dinnerrdquo He nodded and said ldquoFollow merdquo I did and as he pushed open a back door he said ldquoItrsquos going to happen for yourdquoI was so touched by his vote of confidence this total stranger His kind words felt like the hug I needed at that moment I thanked him and as I walked into the spring evening air I could hear the paparazzi behind me I turned to see the red carpet the cameras snapping the stars still arriving fashionably lateExcerpted with permission from Walk Like A Girl by Prabal Gurung HarperCollins Publishers India