2011
Walter Murphy, Jenny Hawkins and Stanley Gartschein showed up at the recent Fashion Meets Finance event, where polite conversation has replaced groping for cash. (Rebecca Sahn)

2008
Jessica Anderson, Prescott Hahn and Cassie Moore epitomized the flashy finance parties of yore. (Rahav Segev/Photopass.com)

Picture this: New York, June 2008. Moneyed men in pinstriped suits flooded Taj nightclub to impress well-dressed, underpaid women eager to fulfill their Mr. Big fantasy — and ride home in a town car with the next Lloyd Blankfein. The fabulously in-your-face meet market event was called “Fashion Meets Finance.”

Before attending, men were required to list their salary and then brandish their business cards like badges to gain entry. The women? They just had to work in fashion — a definition that encompassed anything from being a shopgirl at the Gap to a designer at Ralph Lauren.

It was gauche, it was obnoxious and it was a wonderful snapshot of the way we were, the Big Apple in the last throes of blinged-out bottle service fueled by conspicuous consumption.

But then the stock market collapsed, and the industry took a beating worse than a guy in an Hermes tie at a Hells Angels clubhouse. While there wasn’t much to celebrate for the next two years, every few months, the Fashion Meets Finance soiree continued determinedly on, like the string quartet on the deck of the Titanic, until 2010.

The organizers — wanting to reflect the new age in the money business, in which banks put the kibosh on hard partying for public relations reasons — shut it down.They took a yearlong hiatus to rebrand — until Thursday, when an estimated 1,000 male and female revelers gathered at Chelsea restaurant Bar Basque.

Was this the signal that glory days were back again? A triumphant return of NYC gold diggers and the men who love them?

Unfortunately, for the gold diggers, the answer was no.

“I met a bunch of lawyers and a few guys who work for City Hall,” says Meray Arnett, 24, who has her own line of shoes specially engineered not to make noise. She had two things she wished to accomplish at the Fashion Meets Finance event: Meet some editors to promote her line — oh, and to find love.

“I find finance guys interesting . . . they have so much power,” says the Gramercy resident, who normally dates hedge-fund men or Goldman Sachs employees.

“So much is tied to finance. Plus, the allure is that they dress well.”

But the bespoke suited fellows at last week’s event were few and far between. There was no salary requirement, no mandatory business cards and — sadly, for the throngs of young women present — hardly any finance guys. For part of the party, men stayed on one side of the room, women on the other. Only halfway through did the sides begin to mingle.

In one corner, a 20-something woman in a black dress and pearls awkwardly dirty-danced with an all-American boy in a blue button-down shirt.

Other attendees simply showed up for a drink and some good people watching. Harry Curtis, a 39-year-old financial analyst, came to laugh at the scene along with his co-worker and fellow analyst, Cameron McKnight, 33.

“We came for the entertainment value,” says Curtis, an Upper East Side resident, of the stylish women looking for bankers with fat checkbooks. “But a lot of the guys [here] aren’t even in finance. There’s a lot of people in IT — no offense to my IT guys.”

One such non-finance guy was Mike Vitale, a 33-year-old Bay Ridge resident.

“I don’t work in finance anymore,” says Vitale. “I now charter private jets, and to be honest, I’m a hell of a lot happier.”

Vitale, who cleaned up with the ladies at last year’s event, came with his former co-worker, 30-year-old Chris McGuire, who still works at a large bank.

“I met my ex at the last event. It was good at the time, but bad now,” he shrugs.

“I’m single. What other reason is there to be here?” adds Vitale, who freely admits he lied about his salary at the last event.

“By the time the girls figure it out, it’s too late.”

This time round, Fashion Meets Finance 2.0 is taking a more inclusive approach.

“In the past, we really drew a line in the sand, and people had to show their business cards,” says Charna Weissman, a finance recruiter who, alongside Esprit buyer Beth Newill, now organizes the event.

“We didn’t want to be as strict about it. We wanted people to come out and see that it was a fun after-work event.”

Kenny Gross, a 38-year-old in insurance, used to frequent the shindigs in their earlier, more ostentatious incarnations. (Three years ago, the original invitations boasted: “Women in fashion need men who can facilitate their pre-30 marriage/retirement plan. And men in finance need women who will allow them to leverage … their dating equity.”)

Gross, who ran into a 25-year-old colleague, Fotios Katsigiannis, at the party, was impressed by the female turnout.

“The girls look pretty sharp. We don’t get to see stylish clothes that often,” he says of his industry, not noted for its fashion statements. And Gross wasn’t shy about being on the prowl for some impromptu loving. “I may have made out with someone at the last event, but I am not sure I got a date.”

But for 30-year-old buyer Mai Nguyen, the night was far from a success.

“There’s a lot more girls here this time, and I feel like I’m taller than everyone,” she complained.

Arnett seemed to agree.

“There wasn’t anyone outstandingly good-looking or tall. Everyone was kind of on the short side. But I’d go out with the lawyers. They just have to call me.”