q&A with KARL LAGERFELD (UN-TOUCHED!)

Harper's Bazaar: The recession is keeping me up at night. My husband tells me I have to cut back on spending, but I'm anxious about shopping on a budget. Can I still look chic while buying cheap?

Karl Lagerfeld: The most important thing is to sleep well. Try to have sweet dreams and no recession nightmares. You have to find out if your husband is telling you to spend less during the crisis as an excuse. Never use the word cheap. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans — it's up to you.

Don't use expensive clothes as a screen for your personal doubts. Be proud of yourself and not only because you wear expensive designer clothes. They are great, but lots of people are happy without them. Don't play the victim: It's too easy. You come first, the clothes later. Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Play with it. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret for the next step.

HB: With distressed elbows, white T-shirts, and acid-washed jeans all the rage, I am paranoid that my friends will think I have gone to the poorhouse. What impression will I make? Will my friends judge me?

KL: The T-shirt can be impeccable, and the jeans, too. (The body has to be impeccable as well — that helps a lot.) If it's not, buy small sizes and less food. Acid-washed jeans are not new — they existed at the same time as wild shopping did. To reinvent a newly impeccable you in the most modest of outfits, don't skip on makeup, and be sure to have flawless skin and hair. That will have more impact than expensive clothes. And, by the way, what kind of friends do you have? Dress for yourself and the man you love (if there is one). Women dressing to impress other women — forget about that. It's a very bad way of thinking.

HB: My head is in the clouds. I am constantly distracted thinking about my next purchase: a new tuxedo jacket, a ruffled blouse, a strand of pearls. Am I a shopaholic? What should I be buying, anyway?

KL: First, look at the tuxedo you already own. The same goes for the ruffled blouse and the strand of pearls. They all look the same anyway, and they can wait because they're not new. Buy what you don't have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping. That's a little childish. Going from shop to shop is, perhaps, today considered a form of cultural anxiety. There are more constructive and intelligent ways to spend your time.

HB: I love the shine and bright colors in the spring collections, but I'm a wallflower. Is there a subtle way to incorporate them into my look?

KL: In terms of fashion, those wild prints and bright colors are more from last summer. One gets easily tired of violent prints and wild colors. And if you consider yourself a wallflower, then you better look in another fashion direction. In the city, bright colors and bold prints don't look so great. So if you must wear them, wait for your holiday.