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Goodbye Recessionista Glamorizers
By admins | October 6, 2009
flickr image via Dan Taylor
Recently we were wondering if anyone else was sick of the term recessionista, or more specifically how the media seems to be glamorizing budget living. We quickly received our answer after stumbling across this article by Latoya Peterson at Jezebel.com. Her article, Why I hate Recessionista Lifestyle Pieces, is just brilliant and a must read. Lately there seems to be a plethora of articles in print and on the web using the term “Recessionista” as a way to sell their products or brag about the author’s new found ability to shop the sale rack. We find it extremely insulting in a time when many are suffering with real financial difficulties, from losing a home or job to choosing between paying utility bills or buying groceries, to have wealthy people use the recession as a marketing tool for profit.
One such annoyance was Anna Wintour’s appearance during Fashion’s Night Out at the Macy’s in Queens. While FNO was a terrific event, especially for the NYC retail economy, the trip to Queens was a condescending PR stunt. While most big events that night got started after work around 7pm Anna showed up in Queens before 5:30. Anna snuck in and out quickly and at the least desirable time slot. While this was a big event in NYC, the national media gave it little coverage except to highlight that Anna Wintour of Vogue was “hosting” an evening of affordable fashion in Queens. However, in reality she hosted a brief photo-op as she was publicly lauded for coming to the boroughs to see the common people.
In Latoya’s article she specifically goes after an Elle magazine article by Laura Hollinger called, My Year of Living Frugally. In the Elle article Laura has the nerve to complain about her 6 figure salary and bemoan having to take the bus rather than a taxi. She goes on to brag about bargain hunting and using her credit card for points, as if she is the first to discover such things. As Latoya so bluntly stated the reason she hates recessionista pieces, “and any other fucking thing I read about how ‘trendy’ it is to be financially conscious. I’m not on trend, damn it, I’m fucking broke!” We really wanted to bang our heads against the wall when reading that during the “year of living frugally” Elle’s writer “slipped” and bought a $300 pair of Lanvin shoes at Jeffrey’s. Now, anybody who is really on a budget and not playing poor for attention knows splurging on designer’s shoes is just not an option. Secondly, a real recessionista is more likely to be at H&M, vintage stores, or sample sales, than wandering around Jeffery’s with $300 burning a hole in her pocket.
Now, there are many great ways to be fashionable on a budget and certainly many worthwhile pieces about them. There are a ton of fabulous bloggers out there that provide useful information for the recessionista shopper and we mentioned some of them here. Our issue is with people who are not really suffering and don’t need to be cutting back but are, for the media recognition. Those people should be out there spending and in turn helping our economy. God knows the fashion industry needs more shoppers not less. Why pretend to be broke when you don’t have too, and even more so, shame on you for writing these self congratulatory pieces because you voluntarily figured out that skipping the weekly salon blow out will save some cash.
We must end this piece with a book recommendation for all you book worms out there. You must pick up, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. This book is the antithesis of the Elle article. It documents one writer’s life during the last recession (long before terms like recessionista or frugalista became popular). Barbara chronicles her life working variously jobs like house cleaner and Walmart associate while living in cheap apartments and even a trailer park. Unlike the Elle writer she never bemoans the loss of designer hair products, but rather debates whether to buy gasoline or lunch while on her time stamped 10 minute break. This book is an eye opener of what it’s like for millions of Americans trying to survive on a living wage, to which Madison Avenue shopping trips are an unheard of fantasy.
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Topics: fashion, recession | 19 Comments » 
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October 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Yes, I’ll say. For me I have had to shop on a budget for the last three years, not just the last one year of a recession. Now in a recession not only do I not shop, now I can’t even afford to thrfit most of the time. I just rewear whts already in my closet, there is enough of it!
October 6th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Well said loves. The reality of poverty is far from glamourous and entails much more than smart shopping at the Barney’s warehouse sale.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Just another example of how Anna Wintour is so out of touch with reality that she must be an alien from space. How condescending her and others of her ilk are.
Btw I’m giving away a pair of LNA zipper leggings from Chickdowntown – check out my blog to enter! http://highmaintenancewoman.blogspot.com/2009/09/get-fresh-for-fall-with-chickdowntown.html
October 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
When I started my blog, The Recessionista over a year ago, the word recessionista was new and we were just at the beginning of the Recession.
I didn’t see anyone in the fashion world addressing how the downturn was affecting us, or offering “survival tips.” It was my mission to provide this by founding The Recessionista Blog. It was based on real feedback, from real people.
Since them, I am appalled by the number of celebrity magazines using the term to popularize selling poor quality merchandise at over inflated prices.
The Elle article is crazy, with the author recommending a pair of $800.00 shoes! These magazines, which for years, have recommended inflated, puffed up, trendy items, are now trying to relate to consumers, but they have a long way to go. Ripping off words popularized by bloggers, doesn’t mean the magazines are any closer to getting in touch with what is happening in the world. The Recessionista word is just their way of paying lip service!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Well put. “Our issue is with people who are not really suffering and don’t need to be cutting back but are, for the media recognition. ” — this is killing us in the fine jewelry business.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am
God I agree with this.
I’m permanently skint, my clothes all come from Charity shops and sometimes, like Eyeliah, I can’t even afford that, as unfortunately I have to eat.
It drives me crazy to open a magazine and read about a “bargain” pair of £100 shoes.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Bravo, very well said. Jumping on the poor bandwagon by buying $300 shoes, christ!
October 8th, 2009 at 10:39 am
This is why I love this blog.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:34 am
So I read some of the comments in the Jezebel piece, and a few people were saying, “Well, that’s NEW YORK. Middle class IS making six figures, because the rents are so high.”
It’s an argument I’ve seen before, and I’ve wondered for a while… is that true? Surely New York must have some people who are making (what I’d call) a decent 30 or 40 or 50 grand, and yet still manage to have some kind of style and an apartment? Or is that sort of salary really only what an illegally working hotel maid or dishwasher struggles by on, in the Big City?
October 8th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Loved your article once again-how absolutely refreshing to read a blogger who realizes that most people do not live the life portrayed in Vogue or Elle. Also loved how you brought Nickled and Dimed to your readers’ attention. That book makes you realize how lucky most of us are!
October 10th, 2009 at 2:43 am
“We find it extremely insulting in a time when many are suffering with real financial difficulties, from losing a home or job to choosing between paying utility bills or buying groceries, to have wealthy people use the recession as a marketing tool for profit.”
Sorry for the long quote, but you hit the nail on the head with this one. So many people are still out of touch with what’s really going on with people who lost their jobs (when they were living paycheck to paycheck to begin with) who are drowning in the high cost of health care and so on.
As she complains about having to catch the bus, there was a time when I had to chose to get up two hours early to walk to my job interview so that I can save that $3 that desperately needed.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Fantastic article. I can’t believe Elle would run that. Man.
October 11th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I thought the same exact thing as I read the Elle article. As someone who just lost a six-figure job and is living strictly off of the money I’ve scrimped and saved because I’d had the wherewithal to do so before being let go (including REAL frugal living), I was highly offended.
October 11th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Excellent post. I’m always amused by fashion magazine’s “frugal shopping” articles. Clearly, these women are measuring themselves against atypical high standards (if Anna Wintour is your version of living large, then scrimping on a trip to Vali is your distorted version of frugal living). But then again, fashion editors and writers don’t have a clue what real people are going through. They can’t begin to understand the real challenges so many people face. But that’s not glamorous enough to put in a fashion magazine.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Surprisingly I was not confronted with the term ‘Recessionista’ before, partly due to living in Europe I guess? But I completely get your point. Having to cut back at a still luxurious lifestyle is something completely different than fighting for everyday survival for real. Those articles must really hurt people that are troubled by real problems! Great post!
Lilly
October 13th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Hmmm. I agree, but disagree. I don’t like fakers, so I agree with that point. However, I disagree that there are people who don’t need to cut back. If someone has room to cut back, I think they should. I can consume with the best of ‘em. But do we REALLY need ALL of that stuff? I think the recession should teach us all a lesson to save for a rainy day.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I try to shop as little as possible because
1. I am broke.
2. I am sick of useless impulsive spending.
There is so much room for imagination when you try to work with what you have got. Yes, I cut back when the recession hit. I am still appalled at how much money I spent on nothing and that is what the recession taught me and I am kind of grateful for that.
So yes, I agree, using recession as an advertising to buy even more staff is pretty hypocritical.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I read this article too and I was completely ticked off. She’s complaining about making a six-figure salary—she should try making $8 an hour, like some jobs I’ve had in the past!! And buying $300 shoes is living frugally?? Talk about not being in touch with the real world. I doubt I spend $300 on my ENTIRE WARDROBE for the WHOLE YEAR.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Although i am not going to save the world with it i just launched a store that give a portion of there proceeds to a charity that the designer chooses while offering deep discount. I figure it can help the shopper, myself, and someone else all at the sametime. Right now everyone needs a little help
Check it out and let me know what you think. Lorick on-line now supporting The Pink Agenda http://www.cutdrop.com