Though she blushes and shakes her head at the thought of it, designer Judi Rosen could be considered the Pat Field of her generation. Both adhere to a certain ghetto pin-up sensibility, both get giddy over accessories, and both have garnered a devoted crew of night-crawling customers who regularly frequent their downtown NYC boutiques.

Yet, while Field will forever be regarded as the designer for yesteryear’s club kids and Carrie Bradshaws, Rosen is responsible for dressing today’s foxier lot of hipsters. Like The White Stripes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kelly Osbourne, and Britney Spears, “before she turned to Jell-O,” points out Rosen.

I make clothes that people who like to be dressed up all the time -- but also like to be comfortable -- want to wear. You know, slutty daywear,” says the Long Island native with a laugh.

Which is to say: high-waisted, hourglass jeans, shrunken vests, and billowy blouses that fall off the shoulders, paired with fishnet socks, crochet driving gloves (which Pat Field used in last spring’s DKNY ads), and 1950s metal-heeled mules, which are all part of Rosen’s Miss Dater accessories line. “It’s a whole 1970s-Victorian-with-Frederick’s-of-Hollywood type vibe I have going,” says Rosen, who learned to make clothes from her father (“I don’t know what happened to my parents, but they used to have such good taste in fashion”).

Now, having run her mini-empire for the past five years out of The Good The Bad and The Ugly -- her shoebox of a shop tucked into the East Village -- Rosen is moving on up. Two weeks ago, she relocated both her studio and boutique to chicer “Chinatown-lite” terrain. And her latest collection is all the better for it.

Our fabrics are really improving,” she says. “Our denim is awesome. We’re doing these beautiful low-cut Georgie-girl Kimono dresses in a great damask cotton; and they’re really slutty,” she adds with a giggle, “so everyone is going to have to buy our push-up bras in silk jersey eyelet.”

Go There:

The Good The Bad and The Ugly, 85 Kenmare Street, NYC; (212) 473-3769; goodbaduglynyc.com

Join Judi and her crew at The Good The Bad and The Ugly Shopping Party. Friday, April 7th, 5-9pm. There’ll be pink champagne and mini-cupcakes, and 10% off all merchandise.

Judi Rosen is also carried at Patricia Field and In God We Trust in NYC, Satine and Bittersweet Lingerie in L.A, Eskell in Chicago, and Intermix stores along the East Coast.

Photo courtesy of Nylon Japan June 2005 (©)