The first thing that I noticed walking up to the tents this morning was the always impeccable Carine Roitfeld wearing a wide-brimmed floppy hat. Her choice was perfectly appropriate for the beautiful weather we’re having today, as well as for the islandy feeling of the Carlos Miele show.

The show opened to a soundtrack of loud, lively Brazilian music—claps, whistles, and all —and flirtatious grins from Abbey Lee, Eniko, and Constance. The dresses that came down the runway immediately made me long for a tropical vacation, with their sheer, billowy fabrics and brilliant colors.

With every designer from Roland Mouret to Carlos Miele entering the menswear market, you’d assume it’s one area that’s seemingly recession proof, or at least suffering on a smaller scale.

It looks like that may not be the case. If Men’s Vogue going under wasn’t the first indication of trouble on the menswear home front then Thom Browne might be the perfect warning to those considering suiting up the boys in the near future.

Browne’s known for his too-cool-for-school designs - outfits that look like you picked them up off your bedroom floor and suits practically built around bow-ties. But apparently investors just realized said suits cost about $5,000 a pop and they’re not holding their own on the rack. Which means canceled orders for Spring and Fall from small boutiques to big department stores and the possibility of bankruptcy.

It’s a bit of a surprise for two reasons:

1. Thom Browne has quickly become the fashion world’s sweetheart.
2. His multi-million dollar partnerships with Harry Winston, Moncler and Brooks Brother continue into 2011.

With that much established success and future potential, how could anyone not be surprised he’s flailing? Is this an omen for all the designers we previously assumed could ride this out and a warning to those trying to expand?

-CARSON GRIFFITH

On our twisted route to tonight’s Duplicity premiere, we walked down 14th Street and noticed a spookily empty Carlos Miele store.

The lights were off in the all-white, super modern space at around 5:30, the racks were empty, the three mannequins that always hang in the window were missing and the shelves were bare. Nothing in sight but a lone palm tree and a sad bust wearing a red dress on the floor in the back.

The designer announced he was launching menswear at the end of November and a luxury denim line at his Fall 09 show just a few weeks ago - which makes the empty store the first sign of trouble for the Brazilian designer. Unless of course it’s just getting a major makeover, which would put him at the other end of the spectrum as the only designer with money to burn.

Meanwhile, the third star of Duplicity, aside from Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, is the oh-so-distracting black and gold Marc Jacobs handbag she carries prominently from start to finish. Which we guess means Marc has some cash to burn, too.

UPDATE: Carlos Miele’s PR says they’re doing a commercial shoot in the stores for two days. So, no worries for fans - looks like Carlos is on that safer part of the money spectrum.

Gareth Pugh is taking on menswear.

The very important and semi-surprising piece of information was kept under wraps until the official announcement of the Paris Men’s Fashion Week schedule yesterday. In the past month, Matthew Wiliamson, Carlos Miele, Christophe Decarnin and Roland Mouret have all announced plans to introduce menswear. Pugh, the least commercial of them all, will close the week with his show at Palais de Tokyo, the same venue in which he showed his women’s collection last September.

Pugh’s incorporated menswear into past collections but never produced a full line. We can’t help but picture a more masculine version of his Spring 09 collection - very tight, futuristic, entirely black and white and hopefully no where near Jay-Z’s next tour.

It’s a risky move - Fendi, Valentino and Marni have all cancelled their men’s shows thanks to the tanking economy and Zac Posen told WWD that he will absolutely not move forward with plans for a secondary line despite wanting to for years.

But Rick Owens, who with his wife Michelle Lamy has a 49% stake in Pugh’s brand and is also showing a full men’s collection in Paris, would rather we just go with it.

“Just come with an open mind,” he says.

No problem. A ticket to Paris, however, not so easily done.

Phillip Lim’s starting a line for dogs.

While Zac Posen and Doo. Ri get to work on their bridge lines and Carlos Miele and Roland Mouret work out their menswear launch plans, Lim thinks his design skills could be used elsewhere.

So he’s found inspiration in his darling French Bulldog, “his best friend and muse,” Oliver and designed a few sweaters - grey, navy, pink - and collars for the holidays.

But for a man who prices his human clothes so reasonably (in high fashion speak, at least), doggy prices are surprising. They range from $150 to $375 and you can get them in his LA and New York stores.

If we could stretch our way into the navy striped one, $150 would be totally worth it.

If you were wondering which designer would be next to take the plunge into menswear, wonder no more: It’s Carlos Miele.

Miele, best known for producing gowns of red carpet worthiness, will launch the line under his diffusion like, Miele, this January exclusively in Brazil. He promises to keep it casual and environmentally responsible, and it’s even going to include swimwear, which he vows will be followed up by bathing suits for women, too.

We’re kind of fascinated by everyone’s recent turn to menswear, and we just realized there’s a really bright side to all of this - If designers are turning to a new type of consumer to expand their customer base to help them out of this slow buying cycle, great. Because really, it’s a hell of a lot better than designers turning to It bags and shoes, which could turn their current customers off in a heartbeat. So, well played.

Carlos Miele must make his clothes with the red carpet in mind, but they’re more suited to a beauty pageant stage.

There was an origami pleated, yellow printed mini skirt that we could find a way to wear everyday, but the floor length, ruched, beaded and ombred gowns were a bit much.

And the fur trimmed everything seemed strangely inappropriate in the midst of the industry’s current anti-fur stance, not to mention among the lingering Charlotte Ronson pins.

We still enjoyed the show. We giggled at Karlie’s death walk/stare and fell deeper in love with Tanya D.

Last year’s Michael Kors ads might have been awful, but after seeing her on the runway everyday for the past week, well, we’re kind of obsessed.

We always knew Caroline Trentini was cute, and now it turns out that her doodles are, too.

At left is the design for her limited-edition tee for Brazilian designer Carlos Miele’s Rainforest Project. Like Scarlett Johansson and Camilla Belle, Caroline’s tee will be sold in Carlos Miele boutiques, and 20% of each sale will benefit the Rainforest Foundation.

The sketch kind of reminds of that episode of ANTM in Season 8, when the girls had to make up an Aboriginal dance and story. We could just picture Caroline:

“I was just a little girl in Brazil, then a big person came and I found myself on a runway, with wings!”