Unfortunately, these economic times aren’t a-changin quickly enough. Yet we prevail. We eke on by, with meager diets heavy on the cheap fruit, veggies and ramen (with the occasional latte or brewski thrown in for balance on our recessionary culinary pyramid).
For the budget savvy: enter the Brooklyn’s Bitches on a Budget, an online site launched last summer which finds its inspiration from the need to be ever so frugal: from taking on a $100/month-salary filmmaking stint. The brainchild blog of School of Visual Arts film student Bennett Elliott—how much orthographic alliteration can we wedge in?—the site, crafted lovingly from her home, or as Elliott terms it, pretty much the most perfect apartment in the entire universe,” nestled just adjacent to the Metropolitan/Lorimer G/L stop, pretty much lives up to its name (in terms of living on a budget, that is. She herself is quite sweet).
For the day-to-day, Elliott scours local blogs such as The Skint and Free Williamsburg, as well as print mags such as Time Out-New York and Paper for the latest on free goings on and resources on how to survive on next-to-nothing here in the 11211/11222. And for this installment of the blog, feeling pretty much too lean in the wallet myself, I picked the filmmaker-comme-producer’s mind for her sartorial secrets here on how to be a “bitch on a budget” in Williamsburg.
Elliott raves, “I absolutely love the Salvation Army,” located in Williamsburg at the corner of Bedford Ave and N 7th St. “For Halloween two years ago, my guy friend and I decided to dress like the Tannenbaums,” of movie fame. For the tidy price of $10, she and her goblin compadre found a slew of striped polo dresses and 70s tennis shirts to keep them in character “for two months afterward,” she says.
For cheap entertainment, the BK B on a B suggests spending a day with $5 and heading to Junk, located in Williamsburg, at N 9th St and Driggs and in Greenpoint, on Franklin between Huron and Green. “Just go with an intention of finding nothing particular in mind and see where the money takes you,” she advises. Also on the recession fashion prescription: jewelry, tights and belts to breathe new color into an outfit. But one item of hers in particular caught my eye whilst at our meeting at El Beit this blustery Tuesday afternoon: her red and white cowboy boots that bear more than a passing resemblance to the vintage finery I picked up at Kill Devil Hill last month.
“Oh, I was just helping my mom clean out her closet and I saw these. She bought them on the Bowery in the 70s. My parents were artists in Bed-Stuy back then.”
From one Bedford-lined nabe to another, never underestimate the wellspring of free yesteryear style that is the parental closet.
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