The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, New York

What do you wear to a recession? Women will pare down to essentials and make what they have go further, both in fashion and in their day-to-day spending, say trend-watchers and designers who unveil spring 2009 looks at New York's semi-annual Fashion Week starting on Friday. Practical, tailored looks will prevail over frivolous frills, say designers who hope to lure women into buying something new, despite the prospect of recession by year's end.

Enticing US consumers to splurge on fashion is not easy against a backdrop of lost jobs, home foreclosures, a battered stock market and US dollar, and surging food and fuel prices. Nor do the dark economic clouds look likely to lift next spring, said David A Wolfe, creative director of trends forecaster The Doneger Group.

"These clothes for spring and summer of 2009 will hit when the economy is at the lowest of the low," he said. Styles will reflect the times, as they did in the Great Depression and in World War Two, he said. The 1930s brought long somber hemlines, and the 1940s saw fitted women's suits.