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Black magic

Glam up that little black dress with accessories guaranteed to make ho-hum disappear.

By SHARON FINK
Published December 2, 2006

[Times photos: Bob Croslin] Velvet scarf with blue and gray pattern, Nordstrom store brand, $185, Nordstrom, International Plaza, Tampa. • Hot pink bolero jacket, Jolie Mine, $152, Deborah Kent’s, 2120A S Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, (813) 259-1150 879-2520 • Red sandals, Impo, $34.95, DSW Shoe Warehouse, 1556 N Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, (813) 879-2520; 15034 N Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, (813) 908-5600. • White lace belted top, Victor Costa, $119.99, Stein Mart

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photos: Bob Croslin] Black coat with red flower print, $128, Chico’s, bay area malls and www.chicos.com. Feathered hairband hat, Ophelie Hats, $38, the Art Tarts, 4109B S MacDill Ave., Tampa, (813) 832-5665, www.theart tarts.com.

The stalwart black dress gets a major workout at holiday party time.

And despite all the good reasons for this - it's classic, it's easy to wear, it's hard not to look good in it - the black dress gets boring. Not only for the women wearing it, but also for the people who become so immune to its presence, parties become a mass of disconnected heads floating on a sea of darkness.

This holiday season, be the person in the black dress who makes everyone including yourself go "Wow" when you walk into a party. Add one thing that spices up your standard black-dress outfit. Or creates a new outfit. Something that makes the dress a blank canvas for your wowness.

Make the addition something with intense color. Shine. Feathers. A good fit. A bold look.

Find it in . . .

A JACKET: A bolero or hip-length one breaks the dress into a skirt and a top, and a bright color, like deep, hot pink, or intricate material, like lace, keeps the focus up toward your face. A long coat makes the dress an undergarment, in effect, and the coat the main player. And go for a long coat with a pattern instead of a solid color, which can be as one-note as the dress.

JEWELRY: Get a pair of chandelier earrings that graze your shoulders and catch the light from every angle. Pick up a long gold chain you can wrap around your neck three or four times. Slip on a big necklace with beads or jewels in brassy colors. And here's where to make an exception to the one-thing rule: If you find two or three costume-jewelry necklaces that wow you in appearance and price, buy them and stack them on as one unit. Your cash outlay can still be less than it would have been for one piece of the real thing.

A SHAWL OR LONG SCARF: Wrap yourself in a piece you can toss dramatically over your shoulders or rest stylishly around your neck. Color and pattern are key; accents such as fringe or beading take the wow level higher.

A HAT: Take the focus away from the body and put it on the face. But don't do it with something you'd wear to the Kentucky Derby. Put on a hat that sits close to the head, like a fedora, cloche, toque or even just a hair band trimmed in feathers or embroidered with pearls and sequins.

TIGHTS: With the nights cooler and the humidity lower, the weather is right for pulling them on in subtle gold or silver, mesh with an intricate pattern or black with colorful prints. But unless your legs are pencil-thin, keep the tights dark.

RED SHOES: It's the ruby slippers effect. Red shoes never fail to stand out. They also never fail to attract boors who insist on asking you to click your heels. Ignore them. Stay tuned into the admirers saying "Wow."

Sharon Fink can be reached at (727) 893-8525 or fink@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 1, 2006, 11:48:53]