The Spring Summer 2014 collection Prabal Gurung showed was built on the idea of “the idealised woman," showcasing sheath dresses with unexpected cutouts and harnesses, and the pearlescent pink shirtdress and sky-blue draped dress with a cascading back ruffle were more chic than sweet.

He also showed a crisp white shirt — seemingly simple from the front — that had an open back engineered with a clear, plastic harness.

The finale gown, a black column with a white satin panel embroidered with vertical blocks of black and purple sequins, was incredibly artful and worthy of the elaborate stage setting. Gurung had all the models boxed inside clear plastic panels, and one by one, they’d take a spin around the runway.

Transparency was a theme here, including an eye-catching sheer sheath with a giant, hand-embroidered red rose, paired with a slim rose-painted pencil skirt. There also was a printed PVC raincoat worn with green silk skinny pants.

Gurung said in an interview that sometimes the craftsmen he works with are skeptical of his requests, but together they’ll take the risks. “They look at me perhaps as if I have twelve heads, you know, but the thing about them, I always have a way of asking them and I always say, ‘Look, if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out,’ but at least we have the satisfaction of trying.”