Although few of the attendees at Elise Overland's SS10 show Sunday were the wiser, there was something off about the last look shown on Overland's runway. It's not that the show, chock-full of sumptuous leather cocktail dresses, slick leather-paneled leggings and stunning silk creations, was a miss as far as the clothes were concerned. Simply, the last model who strutted the runway was indeed a man (albeit one moonlighting as a woman with fake boobs, high-heels and slicked back hair). And Overland isn't alone this season when it comes to dabbling in cross-dressing.

Apparently the fashion industry is being plagued by a diffusion line epidemic: in just under a week the likes of Temperley, Rag & Bone, Grey Ant, and Thom Browne have announced that they'll launch lower-priced lines. Temperley, whose dresses can typically retail for over $1,000, is launching a lower-priced line whose price tags will start at a relative mere $57. Of Rag & Bone's new cheaper offshoot that launches this spring, The Cut says, "the rag & bone/JEAN line will include three styles of jeans in eight colorways while rag & bone/SHIRT will include seven styles, each in three colorways. The new lines wholesale for $70 to $80 while the main line wholesales for $60 to $860."

In the bizarrely titled piece, “A Fashion Wedgie” (an unappetizing reference I still don’t quite understand), which ran today in the New York Post, it's reported that designer Thom Browne’s fashion business is doomed to bite the dust. “Having spent lavishly on expensive tailors and over-the-top fashion shows, Browne has watched the Wall Street crisis kill demand for his tight, geeky ‘Pee-wee Herman’ outfits, which last year carried price tags upward of $5,000 each,” says the Post. While just how exorbitant Browne’s spending on tailor’s and fashion shows actually got is up for debate (after all, his suits are meant to mimic the craftsmanship of a Savile Row-crafted garments, which don’t come cheap; not to mention his most recent men's show in Florence was anything but lavish), if his company is in fact soon-to-be dead and buried, does it even matter?

“A sense of utility pervades the Paris fall men’s collections,” the New York Times' Cathy Horyn writes on her blog today. There’s no doubt about it -- the work-wear theme has dominated men’s shows in Milan and Paris. And for good reason: With the economy in shambles, showcasing a slick, impeccably styled working man is something everyone can relate to (conceptually, that is). At Thom Browne, as I mentioned last Friday, it was all about carbon-copy office drones, who, despite their day jobs, gave the impression of harboring super powers under their slimly tailored suits. Now it's time to get even more outré with the proletariat.

Leave it to Thom Browne -- the Brit designer synonymous with making high waders cool -- to keep the fashion industry on its toes, even amid arduous economic times. At the menswear fair in Florence this week, Browne showcased a pared-down collection of just two looks in a presentation that was nothing short of genius. Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune called it "simply perfect."

The first freestanding Black Fleece store by Brooks Brothers is scheduled to open in October at 351 Bleecker Street in New York. Helmed by designer Thom Browne, who just re-upped with Brooks in a three-year deal, the 1,700-square-foot flagship store will offer its line of traditional Brooks suits with the Black Fleece signature style -- namely, togs cut snug, sporty, and tightly modern. Jack Nicholson will drool over the shoe line, which includes a few styles of his beloved Spectators. The black-tie formalwear is clean and sharp. The tennis sweater paired with a top hat? Not so much.