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Rachel Syme

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How did fashion designers predict the recession while financiers got caught with their pants down?

It seems none of the usual lookouts—not the Treasury’s watchdogs, not Wall Street’s six-figure soothsayers—foresaw the fiscal calamity now threatening to return soup to its glory days as an entire meal.

Were the Fed run by Miuccia Prada instead of Ben Bernanke, it might have been on the ball.

Well, almost no one. Were the Fed run by Miuccia Prada instead of Ben Bernanke, it might have been on the ball, judging by the spring 2009 fashion collections recently trotted down the runways in New York, Paris and London. Of the Marc Jacobs show last September, New York Times fashion journalist Cathy Horyn wrote, “[It] recalled not merely the common threads of working women, black or white, but also their drift through the dirty ’30s from country to city.” Indeed, several of the outfits reflected a stylish wealth-gap Depression-era garb, perfect for pushing a shopping cart full of worthless Benjamins down Fifth Avenue. Just remember: fingerless gloves or a tattered scarf. Never both, darling.

Click Image Below to View Gallery

BS Article - Depression Fashion (center)

Additional reporting by Alison S. Cohn and Blythe Sheldon.


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October 16, 2008 | 5:43am
Comments ()
writinglife

Funniest part about these fashions being, none of the people who are truly being devastated by this current financial/credit crisis could afford to BUY Marc Jacobs cheeky take on what the lesser half might wear...

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10:48 am, Oct 16, 2008
writergirlinLA

True but remember, Reagan, Bush, McCain - it's all about the trickle down to the little people. Have no fear - we'll certainly see mass quantities of faux fur boas, tweed knickers, page boy hats, and striped match-boy t-shirts coming soon to a Target near you.

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12:04 pm, Oct 16, 2008
davidbbroke

there is some value in buying designer clothes as my partner and i discovered just yesterday. We have both been devateated by this curent economy and are bankrupt and are loosing our home. we did quite well for ourselfs in the 90's and up till about a year ago. we took our designer clothes to a consignment shop and walk out with a check for a little over $5,000.00 . so now we're half way there to living in a Berkin hand bag.

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4:18 pm, Oct 16, 2008
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Breadline Chic

by Rachel Syme

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