“Everyone just expects me to jump now. I think they just think I jump naturally, like put me in great shoes and I jump,” said Caroline Trentini backstage at the Victoria’s Secret show this afternoon.

“Will you ever not jump?”

“No! I mean, as long as people ask me to jump, I’ll jump!”

Once I got that all-important question out of the way, I ran around the room and asked a handful of our favorite girls two critical questions:

1. What’d you have for breakfast?
2. What are you wearing to tonight’s after party?

Chanel Iman said she ate eggs, bacon, potatoes, cereal and fruit. I would have said, “Don’t lie,” but I wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight with an angel and she followed with, “I think eating is sexy.” She wants to wear the Valli dress she wore down his runway, but if it doesn’t show up, she’s sure she can find something “super sexy to wear with my fabulous boots.”

Julia Stegner’s wearing Herve Leger, surprise! (There were two camps of girls, the ones wearing Herve and the ones specifically not wearing Herve because everyone else is wearing Herve.) She’s not a breakfast person, but “I had pomegranate seeds this morning! Only because I’m on antibiotics and I have to eat something.”

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

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.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

When large companies rip-off small designer’s work, we get irritated.

There’s something tragic about watered down design - like watered down beer - ew.

Post-Chris Kane, someone sent us another disturbing Topshop rip-off. That Alexander Wang dress? The black stretch mesh sheath with thick, detailed embroidery? Topshop’s taken it upon themselves to bring the exact same thing, not an interpretation, to the masses.

Wang’s expertly coiled embroidery, extra-long sleeves, fun thumb-loop, and back zipper have been replaced with a far less innovative diamond-patterned embroidery, short sleeves and a plain sheer back.

Just this weekend we dubbed it the new “dress that won’t die.” It’s been everywhere - Kanye’s girlfriend wore it in Paris, Missy Rader wore it in Wang’s lookbook, in editorials featuring everyone from Eniko Mihalik to Liu Wenn - which means that everyone on Topshop’s design staff is ultra-aware of it.

The Wang original is for sale at Opening Ceremony for $955, while the Topshop version is going for $90.

The thing is, no one has to buy the $1000 version. Most people can’t. But instead of buying a copycat, why not admire the original and honor the designer’s work by not encouraging mass reproductions and rip-offs?

—MELISSA ELLIOTT

Models, and Mosquitoes, and Karl, Oh My!: In case you were wondering about all the goings-on in Venice or just how late Karl really is to dinner… [Style File]

Reality Check: Olivia Palermo may be trading her fake job at DVF in for a new fake job at Elle for the next season of The City. We are not amused. [NYPost]

Miss This Kitsch: Even if her fashion advice wasn’t as award-worthy as her acting skills, 80s soap opera star Brenda Dickson gives us a peek into her closet and her style. Hello hairspray! [TheMoment]

E.M. Phone Home: Eniko Mihalik, and her “famously alien eyes” are in the upcoming Vogue Nippon. [Models]

Here’s a sneak peek of W’s fashion feature, “Stardust”. Check out the rest on W’s site tomorrow.

We’ve always been intrigued by Mary-Kate and Ashley’s adamant choice to remain invisible from The Row.

They’ll make public appearances for Elizabeth and James and talk about it in the press, but when it comes to their $300 t-shirt line they didn’t even advertise until this season and they refuse to let themselves be too publicly associated with it.

But the retailers who are determined to sell their line through this recession can’t help but push a little bit of Olsen into the leather jackets and cotton tees. The Spring 09 editorial-like, giant size Barneys catalog was shot by Patrick Demarchelier and stars a string of current top models rocking head to toe runway looks.

On the last page Eniko wears The Row, with cleaned up Olsen hair, over-sized shades, perfectly chunky Louboutin platforms and for extra emphasis, a white paper coffee cup.

The twins might not want to be the face of The Row, they might want their clients to buy their line based on quality and design expertise, but Barneys knows it takes more than that to sell a $550 white v-neck.

I do love Paul & Joe.

Sophie Albou’s clothes are always cute and relatively affordable, her Target collection was a hit and I usually linger over the summer dresses on Net-a-Porter - but when you throw them onto Angela Lindvall and Eniko Mihalik and Jourdan Dunn and put them on a runway under bright lights, yikes.

Her Fall 09 collection included a couple of jumpsuits that looked like pajamas and a Pepto pink halter version. There were fringed shirts tucked into white jeans with over-the-knee boots - in pink. There was, seriously, a fox stole with the head still on that had been dyed turquoise and bedazzled around the mouth. The show closed with a handful of sequined minis, or fabric printed to look like sequins, that were so tiny I was afraid someone’s bottom was going to pop out in Amy Astley’s face.

But it’s the first time I’ve seen Paul & Joe on a runway, so maybe when I see it in a store, without that terrifying fox stole, we can forget this one morning in Paris.

Under normal circumstances, if I get to a show and someone is sitting in my assigned seat, I let it go and take the next one over.

But if I get to Chanel and everyone’s name is written in impeccable calligraphy and my nameplate happens to be next to Brad’s, as in Rachel Zoe’s assistant, then I am fighting for it.

And so, after a heated discussion in the best French I could muster, I took my seventh row perch (the Grand Palais offers fancy stadium seating, about twelve rows) and wondered how to start a conversation with Brad and his red bow tie. But then I read that Kate Moss was front row, got flustered, and before I could decide if I should search for Kate or talk to Brad, Karen Elson was in front of me in black and white tweeds and a whirlwind of models stormed the glassy catwalk.

Sasha, Stam, Freja, Angela, Eniko, Vlada and company wove their way in and out of the labeled doorways, sometimes not so gracefully, in their Edwardian collars and ruffled cuffs. The collection took a turn toward the playful in the middle with pink and green knit accents - tights, bags, ribbons - on the mainly black and white collection. Jourdan carried a 2.55 encased in plastic, Lara wore a giant pink cream puff sweater and Jessica Stam’s ensemble was hip Miss Havisham.

And of course Karl threw in two healthy doses of Sebastian and the boys for good measure.

At the end, trap doors opened from every doorway and out hopped Karl in his sequined blazer smirking, as if to say, “You did not expect me, no?”

The surprise end, maybe not. But these clothes? Definitely.

The Who-hair at Guy Laroche made it easy to ignore the chunky sequin dresses and boxy jackets.

I went to the show because I’m still kind of obsessed with Hilary Swank’s Boys Don’t Cry Oscar dress - and even though Guy Laroche circa 2005 was designed by Herve Leroux (formerly Leger) and Guy Laroche circa 2009 is designed by Swede Marcel Marongiu, I was hoping for something of substance.

The show was small, in a room at the Louvre, and the models were good - Eniko Mihalik, Tanya D, Tasha Tilberg, Ali Stephens - but the clothes were made for the loyal customers sitting fifth row and the random New York socialites in the first. Those thigh high boots, however, a real leather version of the vegan friendly version Stella McCartney showed earlier in the morning, were made for the teenage models rocking them down the runway.

Backstage, before the show, more than one threatened to run off with them and I’ll admit, I was tempted.