RECESSIONISTA: Look what the credit crunch dragged in.Recessionistas are the new fashion demographic, in search of cheap couture, and designers are falling over themselves to cater to this thrifty breed of clothes shopper. Recessionistas are unwilling to pay over the odds for designer gear - they want the look, but they no longer want to spend the money.

So, they want to look fabulous for less?

In these cash-strapped times, everybody is having to tighten their Gucci belts. Fashionistas have found, to their consternation, that their credit cards are no longer limitless, so they are forced to shop around for more competitively priced designs. They want something to die for, but they don't want to have to starve for it. They have to - gasp! - budget.

So will we see Posh shopping at Penneys?

If that happens, we'll know it's Armageddon. But we will see more people searching around for bargains, and looking for that perfect designer outfit at a perfectly low price. And fashion correspondents are lining up to give advice on how to pick up designer bargains, and how to look like a million dollars without spending a million dollars.

So how do these recessionistas save cash?

In New York, for instance, a company called eleganttightwad.com organises discount shopping tours of Manhattan, so that discerning recessionistas can get their manicured hands on some serious bargains while still looking as if they paid over the odds for their items.

"The tide is turning in favour of being less extravagant, and there's no shame in it," says the company's founder, Pamela Parisi. She reckons that designers are pricing themselves out of the market, and that the smart set is heading en masse to the city's consignment shops and retail villages, such as Woodbury Common, in search of better deals on designer gear.

From Fifth Avenue to Thrift Avenue - that's some shift.

It doesn't stop there. Recessionistas are also organising "swap meets", where everyone brings the pieces they no longer want and swaps them for something else.

Next you'll be telling me they fix their own worn-out clothes.

Recessionistas are rediscovering the lost art of sewing on buttons and stitching up holes. Instead of throwing out a dress because it got ripped during the premiere of Sex and the City, they're simply getting out the needle and thread and repairing the damage.

Okay, I'm convinced. How do I become a recessionista?

Just pick up a copy of How to Be a Budget Fashionista, by Kathryn Finney, who claims that the credit crunch has made people look at shopping and consumerism in a completely different way. "Frugalness is the new black," according to Finney's fashion barometer.

So will it get like the second World War, when women painted stocking seams on to their legs?

We hope not - painted-on seams are so 1942. But we will see more people heading for vintage clothes stores, charity shops and second-hand designer shops in search of outfits. We'll also see an increase in creative thinking, as shoppers use their savvy to find stuff that doesn't cost the earth, but looks like it cost the gross national product of a small country. People will boast about how little they paid for their outfit. "Oh, this? 40 quid in a car-boot in Clondalkin. And the guy threw in a pashmina."

But what'll happen to all the expensive autumnwear in the shops right now?

As in the property market, we wait. It'll be rock-bottom by the end of the season.

Try at home:"Darling, I love the outfit! And the sackcloth feels lovely and rough!"

Try at work:"Who is zis Penney, and why are her creations outselling mine?"