Just a story from down-under. What will you be wearing on Dec 31? Link

By GEORGE EPAMINONDAS

Five months before the party of the century, a new millennium bug is rearing its ugly head: what to wear on the big night?

Now that every last shred of Sydney Harbour is booked, fireworks are secured and bubbly is on ice, the frock has emerged as the final frontier. The question is how OTT can you go in the name of Y2K?

"All the way", is the message from the retail and fashion industries, frantically stockpiling slinky gowns, dinner suits and angel-dusted fairy wings in preparation.

The international runways have yielded a plethora of turn-of-the-century looks lately, from liquid-metal jumpsuits to gowns dripping in Swarovski beads or 18-carat gold. Cult Austrian designer Helmut Lang has even re-tooled the NASA space suit - just add a virtual-reality headset to complete the picture.

Australian retailers are taking a pragmatic approach, with department stores David Jones and Grace Bros planning to stock up on high-glam styles for clothes and accessories. A pair of trackies, it seems, will just not do.

At Giorgio Armani, general manager Mary Chiew has ordered almost twice as much of the Italian designer's opulent evening wear to satisfy client demand.

Landing next month are evening dresses encrusted with sequins, crystals and baguette beads, while the look for men is Byronesque three-quarter-length tuxedos. Barfing in this garb is not recommended.

For those with fanciful urges, The Fairy Store in Bondi Junction is stocked with angel wings, fairy masks, glitter and wands.

"People don't have to buy the full spiel," says Helen Zimmerman, explaining that silver is the couleur du jour. "Everybody will wear black, but silver garlands can be weaved through hair or draped from clothes."

If sugar and spice are not your speed, House of Fetish in Darlinghurst might hold the answer. Manager Joanne Kershaw has ordered all manner of S&M accoutrements in time for the celebrations: silk bodices, spiked collars, piercing jewellery, vampire fangs and metal finger pieces ` la The Piano. The definitive fin de slecle look, according to Kershaw, is cyber punk.

So, what is she wearing? "Oh, God, I don't know. We've got Sleaze Ball to think about first."

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), July 30, 1999

Answers

This clarifies quite a bit. I will be sure to wear about 20 pair of new socks which I am buying for the new century along with clean underwear (I'm shopping madly for when one can't do wash) and a nostalgic pair of Brazilian-made shoes. Sayonara old century. It was nice while it lasted.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), July 31, 1999.

Realtree Xtra ? or maybe Treebark. Woodland just doesn't cut it in the winter around here.

-- biker (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), July 31, 1999.