Is cheap the new black?

You don’t usually hear the A-word bandied about in the city’s social circles. And by that I mean “affordable.”

But these are unusual times, so the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation bills its April 17 gala as casual, fun and, yes, affordable.

The 25th annual Preservation Bash starts at 7 p.m. at Mason Murer Fine Art and features cocktails and hors d’œuvres, jazz and swing music, dinner, dancing and dessert. (Info: 404-885-7812, www.georgiatrust.org). Tickets are $125 per person for members, $150 for non-members (that ticket price includes membership) and $100 for guests under 35. Tix to last year’s gala, held at the Atlanta History Center, were $200. Organizers note that this year’s fete is a relative bargain.

Cheap, it seems, is the new black.

‘I’m on the young friends board of our hospital and we try to have our events based on networking and affordability,” said Beth Dunn, author of the Social Climbers, a novel about the upwardly aspirational.

Hmm. There’s that A-word again.

L.A.-based writer Jessica Gottlieb stepped forward with this confession.

“Last year I shopped at Barneys, this year I bought a cocktail dress at Sears,” she said. “From the sale rack.”

Speaking of recession-era threads, you might have read the recent New York Times piece, quoting a bevy of Atlanta’s usual social suspects about regulars about frugal frockery. Monica Hagedorn told the NYT she has dresses to last a decade, and that flaunting wealth these days seems untoward.

In an e-mail, upstate New Yorker Judy Lederman told us she feels the same way.

“No matter how cold it gets, these days I feel vulgar wearing my snuggly warm fur coat,” said Lederman, who’s unemployed at the moment. “I feel like I’m flaunting the money I once had. I would sell it but nobody could give me a good price for it these days.” 

On the Atlanta gala circuit, you see the lousy economy on display every time a live auction begins. At the March 14 Candlelight Ball benefiting the Child Autism Foundation, the auctioneer joked that “any move at all, including change of facial expression,” would count as a bid. Timothy Tew, co-chair of this year’s Ballet Ball, told us that sponsorship dollars were down this year.

“Companies are simply cutting back,” he said. But the grand event, held Feb. 28 at the Piedmont Driving Club, did meet its goal of 350 guests, and enjoyed the support of more table hosts and patrons this year.

Meanwhile, Atlanta philanthropist Melanie Boltax capitalized on the recent shop-your-closet trend, hosting a trunk show at Chez Mel the other day to raise money for Camp Kudzu, which serves children with juvenile diabetes. 

Are you having a hard time drumming up patrons or corporate dollars for charity events this year? Are you entertaining more casually to save money? Is your charitable giving down?