Prabal Gurung Gathers Designers for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Screening

“It’s about supporting the community,” said Phillip Lim on Thursday evening from the lobby of Metrograph. Lim joined ringleader Prabal Gurung and other designers including Joseph Altuzarra, Laura Kim, Carol Lim and Dao Yi Chow — as well as editors Eva Chen, Radhika Jones, Michelle Lee, Kathleen Hou, and Diana Tsui — for a special early screening of “Crazy Rich Asians,” where much of the conversation was around the excitement for Hollywood’s first all-Asian casted film in 25 years.

“Since the ‘Joy Luck Club,’ 25 years ago,” Lim continued. “And the recent announcement of the Emmys, Sandra Oh is the first Asian female nominee, and it’s 2018. It’s kind of wild. So it’s important to show up.”

The film, which opens August 15, is based on the popular book by Kevin Kwan, and stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan and Awkwafina.

“It means visibility, representation, the way we want our community to be shown: beautiful, flawed, like any other human beings,” Gurung said. “For the longest period of time we haven’t had this representation in this big way, with a mainstream Hollywood film come out. So it means a lot to us. I’d seen the movie, they showed it to me, and I got everyone, the editors and designers, together, because we all felt like it was time for us, as an industry, to come together. Because we are a visual medium, as fashion. So I think it’s our responsibility to use our platform, to have a conversation about ‘hey listen, there’s this whole other group also.’ So we’re all excited because of that.”

Not to mention, Gurung features into the costume wardrobe for lead character Rachel Chu, played by Wu.

“The last dress that she wears is mine,” he teased.

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