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“People aren’t shopping right now—the consumer is clearly a bit wary,” says Gilbert Harrison, chairmain of fashion retail investment firm Financo. (He points out that media attention only encourages the worry—sorry!) “I do think, though, that the third and fourth quarters will be better. It’s a gut feeling.” On the bright side, Harrison notes that the soaring costs of imported fabrics mean designers might start buying American-made products again, which would reinvigorate a part of the fashion industry that has been struggling for years.

Meanwhile, consumer wariness clearly hasn’t permeated the whole city. “I’m not seeing the recession,” says Scott Wasserberger, owner of menswear boutique Sew, which opened in Nolita last October. “This is a vibrant neighborhood of young people who are still spending. It’s that New York mentality: You got a credit card? You buy it. Some people just don’t care whether they can afford it.” Wasserberger adds that European tourists find his clothes—which include bespoke dress shirts starting at $175 and suits from $1,850—a great value. The weak dollar has its downsides, though: The cost of the Italian and English fabrics he uses has risen about 30 percent in the past two or three years. “I’ve held that close to the vest,” he says, adding that he plans to keep his retail prices steady as long as the dollar doesn’t plummet any further.

Jeff Goldstein, owner of Hamptons boutique Blue & Cream, which opened an East Village outpost in October, is preparing for the financial bust in his own innovative way. “The middle class gets hurt the most,” he says. “With that in mind, I’m looking to serve my same clientele from the Hamptons, who are not experiencing any kind of slowdown.” Goldstein, who had a brief stint as an investment banker, believes that it’s the “midlevel guy who buys Diesel jeans on the weekends” who will be tightening his belt (also from Diesel, no doubt). Thus, he is betting on merchandise that appeals to the recession-proof types. “My retail prices are now $1,000 and up,” he says, namechecking Zac Posen, Philip Lim and Temperley among the high-end labels he stocks.

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