For Phillip Lim and Prabal Gurung, Hiding Behind Their Designs Is No Longer an Option
The fashion designers have teamed up with the AAPI Victory Fund for a first-of-its-kind fashion-and-politics collaboration to encourage Asian Americans to vote.
It was just a couple weeks ago that Phillip Lim and Prabal Gurung graced the Met Gala with a crew of culturally diverse stars dressed in Gurung’s electric creations.
The two designers are adored in the fashion industry, having dressed everyone from Gigi Hadid and Miley Cyrus to Michelle Yeoh and Vice President Kamala Harris, but, in Lim’s words, “That’s not true representation. We’re the fortunate ones—acceptable and passable within really small bubbles—but that doesn’t make for change. It’s an exception to the rule, and we actually want to be the rule.”
The longtime friends and cofounders of House of Slay—a funny, lighthearted web comic series featuring the duo as superheroes fighting to combat the God of Darkness, a.k.a. racism—are partnering with the AAPI Victory Fund to launch the #OurVote brand, a project that will include extensive voter activation efforts and merch designed by them, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, and a tote bag that reads, “We vote as one nation indivisible; our voice, our power, our vote. The United States of America in voting we trust.” The message, inspired by the Pledge of Allegiance, is translated into every AAPI language as part of the pair’s efforts toward seamless inclusion of Asian Americans into U.S. politics.
