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Layers of sparkle on New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve is different: Your outfit can sparkle, your jewels can dazzle, your hair can glisten. You can wear a tiara, for goodness sake. It’s a night when glitter is good, and the more the better.
Fashion New Years Sparkle
This product image courtesy of Elie Tahari shows a design by Elie Tahari. Brightness and light is what keeps you looking young and your mood elevated

NEW YORK — New Year’s Eve is different: Your outfit can sparkle, your jewels can dazzle, your hair can glisten. You can wear a tiara, for goodness sake. It’s a night when glitter is good, and the more the better.

But you don’t want to be left with a shine hangover, either, so that means finding a way to reuse some of the splashier pieces in less showy ways over the next 12 months.

You might be marking another year on the calendar, but brightness and light is what keeps you looking youthful and your mood elevated, designer Elie Tahari says. You’ll get more bang from your bling if you start off with white or at least colourful clothing instead of black, he explains.

“We are all looking for the same thing: light, truth and joy,” he says. “Light and sparkle — all that comes from within, but what’s on the outside is a reflection of the inside.”

So, Tahari asks, why not a beaded bag or glitzy shoe with your everyday, maybe even tired, navy or black outfit? Or, better yet, a sequin skirt. There’s no age restriction here, he says, just a playful attitude. New Year’s Eve is the excuse to test-drive an oversized, vintage-inspired statement necklace or chunky chain bracelet that mixes sparkle with tough-girl tarnished metal or spikes, suggests Blythe Harris, chief creative officer of Stella & Dot. After you’ve received compliments on the bold new look, you’ll be more willing to wear it again, she says.

Break the Little Black Dress cycle and try a tuxedo jacket, cropped, slim pants, metallic high heels and dangling earrings dripping in fringed crystal, chains and cubic zirconia. “You can take some licence on New Year’s that you can’t other times, but you might like it,” Harris says.

Stila makeup artist Sarah Lucero is a fan of shimmer, and she predicts it’s a trend that will last for a while. It meshes with upcoming spring fashion trends, including colourblocking and garden prints, she says. With makeup, you can layer subtle shine, mixing it with moisturizer as a skin illuminator or as a top coat over black or navy liquid liner, applied close to the lash line. Take full advantage of any romantic candlelight with glitter eye shadow right on the centre of the lower part of the lid, Lucero says.