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).

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Now that it’s 2010, in terms of fashion and clothing speak, the 1990s are officially vintage. Contemporaneously in the fashion timeline came something just as cozy as the weathered flannels and corduroys that now are part of the end-of-the century fashion fabric.The first half of the last decade had a fling with a material decidedly more plush and feminine. Ladies and gentlemen, I feel the next fashion must-download will be Crushed Velvet 2.0.

Last weekend I caught myself scouring eBay for such gems, such as this hunter green velvet dress once upon a time found on the racks of a Contempo Casuals near you.

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Ah, Oct 31: the day when creative types everywhere in the US bask in their eccentricity, and their one-time high school tormentors are probably content to wear a prefab costume found on a rack alongside “Sexy Credit-Default Swapper” and “Sponge Boob Square Panties.”

But intrepid Halloween folk know, prefab isn’t prefabulous. And current economic conditions make DIY costumes all the more worthwhile. I came up with a Piet Mondrian-inspired costume for Halloween 2009.

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Getting Into the Groove

Inspired by last week’s emerging music fest CMJ, I decided to check out Patrick Chirico and Brian Farrell, the designing duo behind Williamsburg-based accessories line WRecords by Monkey (WBM), who recycle vinyl, and craftily “bridge the worlds of fashion, art and music.”

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Ever since I took AP Art History junior year at my high school in Minneapolis’ western suburbs, I have been enamored with the black right angles and the crisp use of primary colors in the works of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, member of the early 20th century art movement neoplasticism, also known by the Dutch term De Stijl, or “the style.”

Mondrian’s planar color fields have inspired many designers in the ensuing decades, notably Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian day dress from 1965, today part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute. More recently, Nike released its Dunk SB Low Piet Mondrian sneaker, and dozens of sellers on Etsy have shown design through a square lens.

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