February 20, 2006 -- Just because skinny jeans are in and all you have are bell-bottoms doesn't mean you need to be out of fashion. With a little work - or a quick trip to the tailor - you can make over your wardrobe without breaking the bank.
Customization and modernization of vintage and secondhand clothing is already hot on the runway - where cult designers such as Imitation of Christ and Libertine have turned recycling into hip couture.

But the concept can just as easily be applied for a small price to hand-me-downs from a mother, aunt or grandmother - or even items from your own closet that have passed their best "wear before" date. And the popularity of "Project Runway" has turned viewers onto the joys of tailoring their own clothes - or at least finding a tailor they trust.

People like Sharon Broit can see the potential in a piece of unflattering loungewear or a stale muumuu. Broit is the owner of Hairy Mary's, a vintage store on the Lower East Side, and champion of the area's hot fashion trend: what she calls "reconstructed vintage."

Broit, a London native, started out plying vintage fabrics and hand-painted T-shirts at London's world-famous flea market known as Portobello Road, then got into vintage clothing and more recently sold her wares at the Chelsea Annex flea market on Sixth Avenue. Before she opened the shop on Orchard Street, a hotbed of young design talent and vintage finds, Broit began altering vintage clothing and making "new" designs from them.

She's become best known among those who frequent her flea market stall for the "boob tube" dress. It's a design she constructs out of what would previously be considered highly flammable refuse - polyester dresses.

"They're like pieces of art, they're one-offs. They suit all different kinds of body-types, so it makes vintage much more wearable." Broit has a knack for combining clashing yet complementary prints into one-of-a-kind, wash-and-wear designs. And no part of the dress goes to waste. She takes the tops of these dresses and makes zip-front tracksuit style jackets with contrasting waistbands.

Broit transforms other items, as well. "People never think of shortening things," she says, "they say, 'It's great, but it's too long.'"

Broit recommends taking the scissors to floor-length dresses to make them more wearable, to coats to make cropped jackets, as well as cutting the bottoms off a variety of styles of dresses to turn them into tops.

She has also created what she calls a waisted dress: She takes what are previously straight-cut sheaths or sack dresses, cuts them in half and inserts a complementary strip of fabric between the two halves, forming a wide, cinched, contrasting waistband. "It gives them a more flattering waistline."

Scissors aren't her only transformational tool. Broit has cultivated some special top-secret sources for vintage trims that she adds to certain pieces. When she changed a purple and black tweed coat into a cropped jacket, she added a strip of black cotton ball trim to the hem for a more finished look.

The main reason for customizing? Exclusivity. "You can go out and you won't see someone in the same dress, which is everyone's nightmare," says Broit. serena.french@nypost.com

Nurturing ideas triumph over bad jeans

To transform a pair of jeans with charm that has worn thin into a fresh spring pair:

1. Cut them shorter.

What to tell your tailor: Bring up jeans to make a pair of clam diggers (just over the knee), or cropped pants (mid-calf), or just above the knee (walking shorts).

Cost: Madame Paulette Dry Cleaning and Tailoring charges $28 to shorten and hem jeans. (If you are working with a pair of jeans that has a flared leg, the legs may need to be tapered from the thigh or knee as well as cut and hemmed.)

Tip: Keep the discarded fabric for patching or to cover holes.

2. Add ribbon trim.

Do it yourself: Measure the outside seam to buy the right length of ribbon. Buy velvet or satin ribbon in black or a jewel color such as navy or purple.

What to tell your tailor: Stitch it from the waistband down the outside seam of the leg to the hem.

Cost: Madame Paulette charges $75 for opening up the outside seam and intergrating the ribbon into the pants (as opposed to sewing it on top of the seam, which is a less couture approach but works, too).

3. Make a pair of knickers.

Do it yourself: Measure the diameter of your jeans at the knee and add 8 inches to each leg length (for the ties). Buy the ribbon. If you sew, this can be done yourself.

What to tell your tailor: Cut the jean leg off one inch below the knee and sew the ribbon around the knee openings, leaving a length or ribbon to tie into a bow at the sides.

Cost: Madame Paulette charges $60, which includes trimming the pockets in ribbon to match the knee ties.