Prada lives for a surprise moment

This much you have to say for the Prada people. Their enterprise is damn near impenetrable. Hiss leaks from every season from the Marc Jacobs (we pre-buzzed that he was giving "calm" and post-show Marc stated that calm was an objective this season). Good speculation streams out of the Calvin, as well as the Balenciga, Vuitton and Chanel. But can the Milan chapter of the Hiss Squad get a single wiff of the Prada doings? Yes and it took some doing. Flocks of models have been migrating from London with one backstage destination in mind. Today, Thursday is apparently casting D-Day as Madame Prada starts the filtering process by going through pages upon pages of a specially compliled book that bears all the girls being presented for her consideration. There might be videos as well as digitals in some cases and from that cut will begin the refinement of her cabine. Of course no-one will dare to speak on the clothes. One rumor we heard was that Prada's designs this season involve "overlapping blocks of dark colors". But that sounds like styling choices...not design , and those choices feel very FW 07 anyway. There's always a continuity at Prada, whether in the usage of "odd stockings" as a motif or deliberately strange hats. The men's collections sometimes provides something of a clue. The shirts with two collars could easily become blouses, as could the shirts that button up on the back . The bib front tops and the flesh toned knits...all suitable for translation. In any case outsiders won't even know what the clothes will look like until that magical half-hour before the show starts when girls exit the hair and make-up area to go into first looks. Until then the coveted clothes are kept locked in a seperate room so as to prevent wayward eyes from glimpsing them and then texting their essence into the blogsphere. And forget about knowing the run of show in advance. That probably gets re-worked right up until the house lights go down and the show soundtrack starts up. Ah, those Prada kids. They sure know how to manipulate expectations! In any case if you hear anything, hiss it our way please.