De rigueur designer Prabal Gurung may be a darling of the fashion press of late, but as seekers of what’s really real, we had to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about. So on Monday night we attended “Prabal Gurung In Conversation” with FIT Head Honco Valerie Steele just a hop skip from FADER HQ. Disarmingly debonair and quite articulate about what it takes to make it in the fashion biz, Prabal easily won our hearts with cute asides like, “I just love an uneven neckline” and admitting that he didn’t know who Oprah was at one point (back in the day, as a budding designer in India). Truth be told, the dude has created at least two heartstoppingly beautiful collections to date. It's the ultra modern stuff a modern-day Hitchcock heroine would be perfectly at home in. That kind of chicness and with all the great press he’s been getting, we were kind of expecting someone a bit annoying, or at least full of themselves. Pleasantly, the opposite is true—we’re sure Prabal is a Buddhist or something (he is Nepali, after all)—and at one point, he advised young designers in the audience: “If fame is your ultimate goal, you will be disappointed.” That’s totally cool, but is it shameful for us to hope the circle of life brings one of his dresses our way?