Oriental Elegance: For Cold Nights

For some people, New Year's Eve offers one last shot at holiday glitz - a chance to deck yourself out in the best of 1997 and ignore all your resolutions until the next workday.

But why should the fun of dressing to the tens be confined to just a few choice days each year? We've got the whole winter ahead of us.

Open up those closets, get out a sewing machine, be fearless in your fashion choices. If this cold season doesn't beg a little imagination and a lot more pizzazz, what does?

There's certainly no shortage of options in the fashion department. The hottest of this season's garb is perfect for a glittery night out, and some of it is worthy of building an entire occasion around.

Wow The Party

This year has brought a grand resurgence of Chinese-inspired elegance, from embroidered silk tunics and luscious mandarin-collared dresses to quilted vests and jackets. A touch of the Far East is as good as gold and makes a regal addition to New Year's celebrations and any other winter affair on the calendar.

Calypso in East Hampton offers ultracool interpretations along this theme, while Obligato, also in East Hampton, presents some traditional, formfitting Chinese styles that will wow the party crowd.

At Havens House, a vintage boutique in Sag Harbor, delivers the genuine article - a 1920s-era embroidered silk formal tunic. D.J. Hart in Sag Harbor offers embroidered Chinese-style jackets.

Least Dressed

It should come as no surprise that some of the best dressed this year are also the least dressed. The slip dress, which to the untrained eye looks exactly like a lace-bordered slip, has been big with designers and fashion consumers in '97. They always did seem too pretty to hide.

Where once you could find a lovely slip for about $30, their outerwear equivalent might cost as much as $2,000, depending on who designed it.

More reasonably priced versions can be found at many of the hipper boutiques around town, but a little ingenuity and a needle and thread can turn a fantastic vintage slip into haute couture.

Moa Boas

Also tickling the fancies this season are boas, furs (fake preferred, please), and feathers of all sorts.

Locally, in this department, the prize goes to At Havens House, which has a unique marabou chubby with orange feathers on yellow satin, made by Tom Ford for Bendel's in the 1960s.

Shocking, yes, but oh-so-irresistible.

Calypso has a faux fur-lined Chinese vest, combining two big trends, and short feather boas.

Drama is absolutely in order this winter. Super-high heels and very short skirts - slit very high on the side (where appropriate, of course).

Boxy bags, a la Kate Spade, are very Now, but somehow of a bygone era, too.

These gray days call for deep royal colors and sweeping Transylvanian-style capes, for anything that will banish the doldrums. Transform your mood from the outside in. Think January ball. A midwinter night's dream. Chinese New Year in February. Carnival!