Thursday, September 8 marked the third annual Fashion’s Night Out. The brain child of U.S. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Fashion’s Night Out was founded to help boost the economy by bringing together fashionistas to support the cause of paying full retail prices.

Fashion’s Night Out 2011 was supported by stores in more than 250 cities across the United States and in 1,000 retailers in New York City alone.

But the night is as much a celebration of splurging as it is of fashion. This year, two innovative East Villagers took it upon themselves to challenge that norm.

Designer Kate Goldwater and partner Alexandra Sinderbrand of AuH2O Thriftique, an East Village boutique that sells recycled clothing, celebrated the evening in their own fashion — by inviting customers to take part in “Thrift’s Night Out,” their very own celebration of cheapness.

Goldwater explains, “Alexandra and I are kind of turned off by the whole ‘Spend spend spend!’ concept of Fashion’s Night Out. Shopping gets expensive when you’re paying retail prices, so we wanted to offer our customers an affordable Thrift’s Night Out experience.”

Around noon on September 8, Goldwater sent out an email to the store’s mailing list entitled, “Thrift’s Night Out (is cooler than Fashion’s Night Out).” It read:

“As you probably know from a million Lord & Taylor ads all over amNY and on the mini TVs in cabs, tonight is Fashion’s Night Out. To encourage people to shop ‘for the fun of it,’ all stores in the city are staying open until 11pm tonight and providing free drinks! And AuH2O is no exception! Though we think it’s really much more fun if you can afford it, so instead of participating in the regular Fashion’s Night Out’s ‘international celebration of fashion,’ we’re hosting the East Village’s celebration of cheapness: Thrift’s Night Out.

Come by the shop for some delicious (and probably very strong) punch, healthy and unhealthy snacks, and our standard cheap prices, especially our $5 and $10 racks. We won’t have celebrities like Justin Bieber, but we WILL have my mother Amy Goldwater, and if you’re lucky, she may do the splits.”

You’ve got to love that counter-culture spirit. And Goldwater’s mother did show up and wow the boutique’s customers with her flexibility.

Next year, the shop hopes to help make the East Village a destination for “Thrift’s Night Out” by inviting other retailers on 7th Street to participate in the fun.

Kudos to AuH2O for keeping it real!

How did you spend Fashion’s Night Out (or Thrift’s Night Out, if you will)?