left - Benetton tank top with metallic straps ($58) and purse ($68); Sisley red shimmer tank top ($68) right - Sisley faux fur coat ($378) over Benetton tank top ($38)

left - Esprit party dress ($69) right - Assorted Esprit "party girl" shoes ($49)

Dont forget the accessories. top - J. Jill Austrian crystal headband ($28) also - Mini satchels from Esprit ($28)

left - J. Jill's washed velvet artist's jacket ($128) right - J. Jill's pet millennium jacket ($168)

left - Sisley faux fur shrug ($128) over shimmer tank dress ($128) right - Benetton faux fur cardigan ($128)

December 9, 1999
Web posted at: 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT)

By Travis Neighbor
Special Correspondent

Message board: What do you plan to wear?

(CNN) -- As 1999 winds down to a close, some shoppers are turning their attention away from Y2K worries and toward a more fashionable dilemma: What to wear on New Year's Eve?

"People are a bit frantic," says Chelsea M. Wheeler, public relations manager for Benetton North America. "This is the big one. The pressure is on."

Of course, this isn't the big one, if you're a stickler about these things. That's 2001, when the millennium starts. But all those zeros in 2000 are adding up to a daunting question mark for some.

Part of the problem in deciding on an outfit this year is that New Year's Eve won't mean, for many, the formal, blowout gala they'd envisioned.

"Everyone I know has decided to stay home with friends because it's so expensive to go out," Wheeler explains.

"Personally, I was thinking about flying to Florida but the flight costs triple what it usually would, and the hotel has a four-night minimum reservation required. Even Champagne has doubled in price."

Juliet Kelley, director of merchandising for sportswear at Esprit, agrees.

"You're expected to pay $1,000 per night for hotels that normally cost $200," Kelley says. "Not a lot of people have big plans. Bookings are down. It's just too expensive."

In a recent Yankelovich poll for Time and CNN, 72 percent of those surveyed said they're not planning to do "something special" for New Year's Eve, and a mere 21 percent said they're including travel away from home in their celebrations.

Another thing that's down, Kelley says, are sales of formal party dresses at department stores. "I'm hearing from the stores that there just hasn't been the big rush to buy them," she says. "But then, ball gowns are only for socialite types of functions nowadays. Everything's gotten more eclectic, sleeker, more casual."

But that doesn't mean partygoers are doomed to wearing jeans for the countdown to the final year of this century.According to Carolyn Moss, fashion director of women's sportswear at Macy's East in New York, designers across the board have come up with a more versatile -- and, many would argue, more comfortable -- solution: evening separates.

"This is the first year that all of the clothing companies have a collection of evening separates," says Moss. "There's a big push for them -- from Liz Claiborne and Jones NY to companies like Jessica McClintock and Rimini, which have always produced more traditional ball gowns.

"Customers are really picking up on it, too," she says. "They want to put their best foot forward for 2000, even if they are staying in to celebrate."

To render the separates dressier, Moss says designers have combined festive colors -- silver, gold, red and black -- with luxurious-looking fabrics. "There are lots of shiny synthetic materials," says Moss, "as well as velvet, satin and taffeta."

Popular items include billowing, taffeta skirts; streamlined, sequined tank tops; and beaded jackets made to match decorated shoes and handbags. Even cashmere has its place at this year's parties, in the form of trim, twin sweater sets and turtlenecks.

Don't plan to embellish things too much: When it comes to jewelry, "It's been a quiet season for several years," Moss says.

Men, too, are finding a wider range of colors and fabrics than is allowed by the traditional tuxedo.

"There are a lot of men's holiday clothes in festive colors made of microfibers," Moss says, "with a soft hand, such as suede, velvet and corduroy. You also see shirts with decoration and shine."

	MESSAGE BOARD
What do you plan to wear for the party of the century?

Sisley is what Wheeler calls the "more fashion-forward, sexier" brand of Benetton Inc. It's aimed at 21- to 38-year-olds while the standard Benetton target shopper is aged 18 to 35.

At Benetton and Sisley, the Millennium Holiday collections fall somewhere between semiformal and practical.

"They're very chic. They're not casual," Wheeler says. "But you could wear many of these clothes to the office and then dress them up to go out."

The collections include satin suits with three-quarter-length pants and double-breasted, knee-length jackets; iridescent shirts and glittery, knit tank tops; cardigan sweaters with faux fur collars; and faux fur shrugs and feather boas.

Predominant colors are red, gray, gold, black and silver, and they match the company's new line of Millennium Luggage. Wheeler describes it as looking "like space luggage -- very silver, very rounded."

But Benetton isn't the only company with the practical side of partygoing in mind. As part of its holiday collection, women's clothing manufacturer J. Jill offers a washable velvet jacket in colors ranging from "winter plum" to "thyme." This is, the J. Jill Web site states, "as comfortable at a holiday party as it is with a favorite pair of jeans."

And Jessica McClintock -- well, her box-pleated ball skirt made of shimmering rayon comes with pockets if you want to forgo a purse.

For companies used to producing casual clothing -- Esprit is one, catering mainly to 18- to 25-year-olds ("We don't do formal clothes," says Kelley) -- this holiday season, it's a matter of getting fancier.

Esprit's holiday collection includes not only black, silver and red but also frosted pink, light blue and lilac because, as Kelley puts it, "It's nice to wear not just silver and black."

Esprit's ballet-neck tops with open-scooped necks and racer-back tank tops are made of stretchy, metallic-looking Lurex to give them a bare, shiny look. Long, silver acetate and satin skirts are slim and fall to the ankle, with slits to the knee on both sides or up the back. "Super-soft" Angora sweaters with hook-and-eye closures hit just above the waist. They're knit in the same frosted colors.

"It's a really pretty look," says Kelley. "You could wear it to multiple functions. It's cool and hip."

As for dresses, Esprit does offer a range. It starts with the "waterlily jacquard dress" in polyester-cotton, something the company's Web site defines as "the ultimate in sass." And it runs to the shiny, acetate-rayon "empire dress" with a 21-inch back slit and bra straps. (Esprit's advice on the Web: "We like it dressed down with big boots, chunky shoes and fuzzy sweaters.")

Then there's the best dress of all if the Y2K bug -- the partying kind, that is -- has bitten you: the "glitter party dress." Esprit's marketers promise that with it, "You can sparkle all night long for Y2K celebrations. Way dressy."

 RELATED STORIES:

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 RELATED SITES:

Esprit
J. Jill
United Colors of Benetton
Sisley
Jessica McClintock

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