The theme of New York's Fashion Week? Poor people. The Migrant Mother look is in right now, what with the recession and everything making it harder to buy that $4,000 "peasant skirt" from Saks. "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," says somebody paying attention. It's like the Depression all over again, but this time with irony.

Okay, whatever. There were no blogs during the Depression, thank god. OMG banks took farm. Mood: Pensive.

On the heels of the Vogue India debacle, where the country's poor and infirm were used as models to shill haute couture, it's just a lil' bit presumptuous to have New York runway shows with messages like "dress conservatively for the harsh economic winters ahead." Like, so what if the Euro is still kicking your ass? At least you aren't in a country where half the residents live off less than a buck twenty five a day.

And make up your mind, Fashion. Either you are trying to sell Burberry to those below the poverty line, or you're making rich people dress in sackcloth. Not both, or the time-space continuum will rip.

Regardless of the state of the economy or metaphysics, here's hoping Betsy Johnson's new mauve line is called Grapes of Wraps (ba-dum-bum).