The sky’s the limit: Prabal Gurung to design for Japanese Airline

Fasten your seat belts! Singapore-born and New York-based fashion designer Prabal Gurung is designing close to 10,000 of All Nipon Airways (ANA) flight attendants and ground staff uniform.

Fashion has reached new heights (and altitudes). Vivienne Westwood recently announced a ten-year deal with Virgin Atlantic to redesign their uniforms and Gurung has embarked on a similar project with the ANA Group.

Having already taken New York Fashion Week by storm, Gurung is aiming for the sky with his next venture.  His designs are best known for their sleek aesthetic look as well as his floral designs, which have previously been worn by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama.

Born in Singapore to Nepali parents, Gurung moved to New York in 1999 where he attended the renowned Parsons School of Design, before founding his own fashion label in 2009 and came runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Prize in 2010. Most recently, he created a diffusion line with the American retail shop Target that flew off the shelves this February.

Gurung has signed a deal with the ANA Group in order to commemorate their 60^th anniversary, and will be used by the staff from the second half of 2014. He has called the collaboration between his designs and ANA as a “great honour” in which “the uniform will play homage to the history of the airline while incorporating a fresh and modern perspective”.

The airline is the largest airline in Japan by passenger numbers, and the eighth largest in the world by revenue. The ANA Group have described Gurung as “one of the most promising celebrated designers of his generation” and hope that the new uniforms will help promote the company’s sense of quality and style. ANA was founded in 1952, and, today, flies to 31 international destinations with a fleet of 232 aircraft flying on 175 routes.

This is the first time that Gurung has designed an airline’s uniform, which will be revealed later this summer.

Arabella Bradley
Photo: Courtesy of Prabal Gurung

For more information on Gurung’s fall line click here.