Tight-belt dressing

Cheap and chic - Siren multi-strap platform heels from Wildpair. Photo / Babiche Martens

Lately fashion has been speaking a new language. Rather than telling leaders of style that if they've got it they should flaunt it, industry insiders are encouraging a frugality in keeping with the current economic climate. But it's tricky. Because obviously the industry also wants us to keep shopping - which is where a confusing new language, filled with double entendres and oxymorons, comes into it.

So if you don't know the difference between "austerity chic" and "crisis cheek", then read on for a bluffer's guide to some of the new terms being bandied about.

But read it quickly. Because fashion is all about reactions and you can bet that pretty soon, outrageous escapism and dressing up like there's no tomorrow while the international banking system buckles will be back in style.

Recession-ista

The follower of fashion who has emerged from her wardrobe clad in designer logos, wearing shoes in which she cannot walk and carrying the latest arm candy, only to bang into a picket line of recent redundancies. So she realises there is a problem with the economy, ditches the fashionista tag, the bling and the daily shopping and starts seeking out a more subtle style as well as reading serious articles about "shopping in your own closet".

The most stylish of recessionistas can make any look, or trend, work on a budget.

Austerity chic

Also known as "recession chic", "credit crunch chic" and the "new frugality". Basically it's the description given to the general mood in fashion of less bling, more consideration. While for most of us it's all about looking stylish on a smaller budget, for others using a phrase like "austerity chic" can also be a particularly brilliant way of justifying the purchase of vast amounts of cashmere in dark colours.

Shopping in your own closet

It's dark in there and the service isn't quite as friendly but you get the idea. One wishes it would be like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and that a French department store would materialise behind your old coats. But what it's actually about is using the clothes you already own rather than frittering your money away frivolously on the skirt of the week. Adapt and evolve those garments, people. Although, it's true, it does mean wearing something more than twice and it could also mean learning to - shock, horror! - sew.

Conspicuous austerity

Rather than going on about the latest Gucci they scored after a weekend in Sydney, the dedicated recessionista will tell onlookers loudly: "Oh, this old thing. Yes, it's from last summer. And did I mention? It's from Kmart."

This sort of bragging has also been called "reverse chic".

Luxury necessities

No dear, it's not the latest Louis Vuitton umbrella. It's the difference between the luxury you need and the luxury you want. It may be raining but this is actually the description given to such things as wedding dresses, posh Champagne at New Year's Eve and a frock for the school ball. In hard times shoppers may pause for thought outside the Vuitton umbrella shop but young ladies will never want to be wed wearing a cream sunfrock from last summer.

Freak-out-onomics

A term given to the fact that, although things may not be that bad, either for you personally or in general, the fact that things look really bad makes you freak out. It's all about a dip in consumer confidence much more severe than what's actually going on. As a result you feel guilty buying expensive handbags and you save that money instead while fashion magazines run stories about austerity chic and designer stores hold sales of decades-old stock to raise extra cash.

Pop-up stores

A few short fashion seasons ago it was the ultimate in cool to stock your wares in a pop-up or guerilla store. Basically these were temporary boutiques, only around for months at a time and often established in some off-beat location in a hip neighbourhood - the inside of a warehouse, back of a library, next to a skate ramp or similar. And everyone was doing it from Comme des Garcons to Karen Walker, from Auckland to New York. But this year what was cool has become a necessity. Lots of empty storefronts, nobody wants to pay high rentals on an ongoing basis and they don't have the budget for an expensive, uber-glamorous store fit out. The answer? Pop-up store, y'all. Look out for them.

Lipstick effect

The folks at major American beauty business, Estee Lauder, noticed this a few years ago: that when times are tough, the tough buy lipstick. That is, the average shopper feels like they shouldn't be blowing wads of cash on designer shoes so to get that retail rush, they just buy themselves a small treat instead: a lipstick. And in a recession lipstick sales go up.

The Fashion Week diet

This does not refer to underweight 16-year-old models. No, it refers to the question that many insiders are already asking: how will the economic situation affect our very own Fashion Week? If current overseas reactions are anything to go by, then later this year Fashion Week itself might go on a bit of diet. Designers may opt for smaller runway shows, or even alternatives to runway shows. They'll have to deal with fewer, or different, sponsors with less money and there may be fewer freebies for those attending.

Vintage

You know how last summer, if your best friend turned up wearing something that was utterly out of fashion and ugly as anything, you would be allowed to say to them: "but darrrr-ling, that's just so last season". Well, now replace "last season" with "vintage" and the slur with a compliment. Not everyone can afford to look spring/summer 2009, sweeties, and one needs to have empathy.

Additionally, be aware that although vintage should really be used to describe items like Victorian lace or 60s mini-dresses, these days if, after shopping in your closet, you dredge something up from last season, you are also entitled to describe that as "vintage".

Investment purchases

The perfect excuse for buying something expensive. If you are a virtuous person then usually these are highly priced garments that you will wear forever and that work well, no matter what's trendy. The best designer jeans. A little black dress. A classic trenchcoat (for those stealth shopping trips).

To justify the purchase, you simply divide the enormous price tag by the number of times you will wear said garment. The jeans cost $500 but if you wear them every day for two months that's less than $10 a day! Awesome.

And if you're not a virtuous person? Well, it doesn't really work for rhinestone-studded, designer ball gowns but hey, having said that, you might have a lot of balls to go to over the next few years.

Stealth shopping

Your sugar daddy invested wisely (in a gold mine) you've still got plenty of readies and you're not ready to stop spending yet. But when other recessionistas are being made redundant all around you and their sugar daddies are opening pop-up stores, then a girl's got to be sympathetic. So you'll sneak into the fancy shops in Newmarket with your head low, wearing a trenchcoat and false moustache. You'll purchase the grey silk rather than eye-popping fuchsia in the designer's signature print. You'll carry it home in a brown paper bag. And you won't tell anyone where it's from and how much it cost.

Recessionista angst

Oh lordy, consumption feels so dirty right now. Worrying about what's fashionable feels irrelevant. But if you don't spend, you won't be fuelling the consumerist economy that we all know, love and live by.

So if you see a well-dressed shopper in a Warehouse T-shirt and designer jeans staring at a pair of $800 shoes, mumbling to herself and generally looking incredibly confused, then you'll know: another sad case of "recessionista angst".

Crisis chic

The low-key, business-like outfit you don when you're about to announce the gold mine is closing due to hard times. Or when you're off to see the bank manager.

Crisis cheek

Where the mickey is cruelly and mercilessly taken out of coping mechanisms that allow the fashion industry to deal with the current economic climate. This story is a good example.