Everybody love’s Vogue. It is the worlds most famous fashion magazine and we have been buying and studying it every month. In its March edition, this temple to fashion worship has returned to a feature that was a regular back in the days of our last mini recession. More Dash than Cash even suggests that you can create a stylish impression without having to go begging to the banks for that impossible loan needed to fund those lavish shopping trips.
Vogue had a whole feature on how to beat the credit crunch to remind us just how sensitive fashion is to the changing times. In ‘40 Vogue Tips for Fabulous Frugality’, this historic leader of all things stylish suggests we ‘hot-wash a faded pashmina to create a shrunken baby blanket, then monogram with initials in silk thread’.
Or even ‘slice the bottom off last summer’s maxi dress and use the off-cuts as a beach turban.
Here are some great highlights of the 40 Vogue Tips for Fabulous Frugality.
1. Perfect the art of travelling light, and avoid those irksome luggage surcharges. Do a test run for the Venice Biennale - there’s always Bottega Veneta round the corner.
5. Be frivolous in the face of freefall - now is the time to get those eyelash extensions.
8. If shaky finances mean you’ve put a freeze on your art collection, leave an empty space on the wall and tell guests you’ve lent your Cy Twombly/ Ed Ruscha/Bridget Riley to MoMA for the year.
17. Commission a good seamstress to alter your mother’s vintage Chanel jacket to springs new cropped length - just remember to ask her first.
31. Up the glamour stakes at home: wear the boyfriends Prada silk pyjamas, put on some heels and prepare a baked potato supper topped with taleggio and truffle shavings.
30. Hunt down a vintage Hermes Lizard Skin Thermos flask and take fresh coffee to the office.
33. Skip lunch at Capriani and adopt a glamorous cause instead. Or better still, adopt a cause and then talk about it over lunch at Capriani.
