Nah—it always comes back for its next closeup eventually.  (It’s like le vampire—beautiful and ageless, but only appreciated in decadent times.)
  But in the meantime, it’s going to be taking a long nap, because, frankly, most of us have more important things to obsess about these days.

Take, for instance, our Twentysomething Top Secret New York City Fashion Correspondents.
A year ago, they were booking their Hamptons summer shares (with 20 of their closest friends, natch) and trolling chic shopping sites at work to grab the best “It” resort wear pieces before they sold out.

   
Then everything collapsed, of course, and this year they’re too busy figuring out how to make those extra bucks—and stockpile them—to be even remotely bothered with buying up the latest trends.  (As one so eloquently put it:  “I’ve already got more s**t than I need as it is; I should probably be selling it, actually.”)
 
In fact, not only are the former fashion elite actually working at work instead of shopping (slacking is so 2007, Dahling), but some are also taking second jobs to shore up their bank accounts for the upcoming economic dry spell.

Even our more seasoned Top Secret Fashion Correspondents (ourselves included) are finding it hard to stay interested in the latest trends after years of over-saturation.  In fact, some of us feel like it’s come to the point where, over the past few years,  we’ve been creating a weird sort of fashion bomb shelter, stockpiled with enough outfit configurations to take us into well into 2020. 

   
   
And, so, we’ve all pretty much agreed:  Enough with the shopping.  It’s time to look at the bigger picture now. 

Of course, hard times doesn’t mean we’re going to neglect our looks completely, or even a little bit.  We’re just going to have to get a bit more creative!
 
   

  (If Andie Walsh can do it, so can we, dammit!)

So while Fashion—in the sense of pursuing/buying the Newest Latest Thing—is definitely in the cryogenic deep-freeze [is that redundant?] for the foreseeable future, take heart:  Dressing well and lookin’ goood is still alive and well in 2009. 

   
And, despite rumors to the contrary, so are We.

Let the recession fun begin!