Patches on a worn sweater or jacket can look elegant, and making your own dress or knitting a jumper can be much more rewarding than just blasting a credit card for something new.
The same goes for party dressing. Yes, the Queen may have cancelled her diamond wedding anniversary party at the Ritz for fear of seeming inappropriately ostentatious, but that doesn't mean all celebrations are off or that clothes for merry-making should be dull.
However, faded glory is more acceptable than brand-new twinkly clothes. So, if you can't resist a bit of party sparkle, go for second-hand lame or sequin dresses.
"Buy vintage," says fashion editor Mary Fellowes.
"Try a classic satin Sixties shift dress or pastel silk Thirties biascut tea dress. You'll find a lot more for your money."
Portobello and Spitalfields markets in London are filled with rich pickings, but also scour eBay and other websites including Junkystyling.co.uk and Wornagain.co.uk
Be canny. Find out about sample sales and visit designer outlets including Bicester Village near Oxford.
It's more time-consuming, but if you're dedicated to looking great without spending a fortune, then you need to put in the legwork.
So, how will designers and the fashion industry be affected by the new wave of thrifty shoppers?
First in the reject pile has to be the statement It bag. Over the past ten years, this shoulder pad of the Noughties has escalated outlandishly in price and size.
An Anya Hindmarch bag will last for seasons
So, surely designers will stop pushing branded bags covered in clanking chains down our throats.
Already the handbag silhouette is being redefined as the discreet clutch bag gains in popularity, and forward-thinking designers such as Anya Hindmarch and J&M Davidson produce chic, well-made bags which last from season to season.
Perhaps it is time for designers and their marketing teams to reevaluate their ridiculously greedy pricing, unless they want only the super-wealthy buying their clothes.
"I think that designers are already reflecting the economic trend," says Sheherazade Goldsmith.
"Over the past couple of years the dresses in
Prada were a total joke, at more than £3,000 each. But I've noticed this year that though still very expensive, the prices of their dresses have come down to under £1,000."
Maybe in the wake of this economic slump, obsessing with the newness of fashion will be reassessed.
Oscar Wilde said: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable we have to change it every six months."
Model Saffron Aldridge agrees: "Who decides that clothes are in for six months and out again? Are we puppets?"
So, will being on trend mean wearing clothes year in, year out?
The outlook's not purely gloomy, though, because times of financial hardship can be hotbeds of creativity.
"Despite government rationing during the Forties, when a dress was 12 coupons and people had only 66 coupons a year, women nevertheless managed to look stylish by relying on their own resources," says Rosemary Harden, curator of the Fashion Museum in Bath.
"In times of privation, people become very inventive."
