Prabal Gurung Walk Like a Girl: A Memoir

Prabal Gurung的回忆录《Walk Like a Girl》以设计师的敏锐视角，重构了移民叙事与时尚产业的微妙张力。书中追溯其跨越新加坡、尼泊尔、印度的离散童年，将文化漂泊的创伤转化为织物的语言——母亲手作纱丽的色彩肌理与纽约T台的镁光灯交织，形成独特的“南亚现代性”美学图谱。作者坦陈帕森斯设计学院求学时期的身份焦虑（“我既非完全的亚洲人，亦非西方人”），这种双重性最终催化出标志性的文化混搭设计，正如他为米歇尔·奥巴马设计的紫红色提哈礼服，巧妙平衡了权力着装规范与南亚传统符号。

贯穿全书的“行走”意象，既指向物理空间的迁徙（加德满都小巷到第五大道秀场），亦隐喻性别规训的抵抗——标题源自祖母教导的生存智慧：“像女孩般昂首行走，让世界不得不仰视你”。这种将女性力量注入时装语言的宣言，在揭露行业阴暗面时更显锐利：书中曝光模特经纪公司对多元体型模特的系统性排斥，与他对凯特·米德尔顿孕装设计的包容理念形成强烈互文。Gurung的叙事如他的褶皱剪裁，既有工艺的精确（详述唐娜·卡兰工作室的技法训练），又保有诗性的留白，使这本回忆录超越时尚圈浮华表象，成为全球化时代文化身份构建的棱镜。

书名：Walk Like a Girl: A Memoir

作者：Prabal Gurung

简介；From acclaimed fashion designer Prabal Gurung comes a captivating, courageous literary memoir, a testament to the transformative power of creativity, and a celebration of the power of femininity and individuality

Walk Like a Girl is the story of a queer boy who yearned for a world beyond the confines of prejudice he experienced growing up in Nepal and India. He came to New York, a hopeful immigrant lured by the siren song of the American Dream, only to encounter pernicious discrimination as he rose within the glossy world of New York high society and high fashion. Chronicling his rise to success as a fashion designer, Prabal reveals the inner workings of this beautiful, treacherous, rarefied world—and what it takes to survive.

With brutal honesty, Prabal takes us on a journey from Nepal to New York, and from the harrowing experiences that shaped him to his inspiring, hard-won ascent to the designer he is today, dressing American icons like Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Kamala Harris.

Walk Like a Girl is also an ode to Prabal’s mother, Durga Rana, whose unwavering love and support gave him the courage to be unapologetically himself. To understand that the things people wanted to shame out of him were, paradoxically, his superpowers.

A defiant anthem for the soul, Walk Like a Girl is an invitation to rewrite your story. To shatter the mold into which society has tried to cast you. When we learn to embrace the power of vulnerability, the beauty of imperfection, and the infinite possibilities within each of us, we begin to see the extraordinary power within ourselves, waiting to be unleashed.