Despite December's nearly 20 inches of snow, area partygoers gamely keep dressing up.
Men have appeared in everything from evening dress to sport coats with festive ties, while women's wear has ranged from glittering, glamorous gowns to comfortable favorites.
“Last year, it was the whole silver thing for the millennium,” Marla Schecht said of what she's seen at local parties. “This year, it's all over the place.”
“There are more colors out there than there have been,” said Jane Elizondo of the recent Belmont Country Club Nutcracker-themed winter dance. “This year, there were quite a few reds, and some gold shades and silver lames.”
And that mirrors what's happening nationally. Gold has been the big story this season, and red is on its way back. And even children's party clothes, with velvet, lace, sparkle, and animal prints, reflect what's happening with the grown-ups.
For Ellie Burgie, who recently attended the Inverness Club's holiday party with her husband, Fred , a red St. John suit she bought last year at Jacobson's proved the key to compliments.
“My husband loves red, and he saw it and loved it so much” that she bought it, she said. “It's just a nice suit. I always feel comfortable in it. If I'm comfortable, I know I'll feel comfortable with everyone else.”
Mr. Burgie chose a classic double-breasted navy blazer for that party.
“He said, `Would that go with your red suit?' and I said, `Beautifully,'” Mrs. Burgie recalled with a laugh.
Every dress has a story.
As Toledo's women assess their party dress situations, many look to old favorites to carry them through the season's events. Others take the opportunity to pick up something new. But all of the women seem to have one thing in common: affectionate stories of why they wear what they wear.
Monica Malhoit wore a tea-length gown made of dark green velvet with jeweled straps to the Belmont party. It looked terrific - but it wasn't her first choice.
“I was in a different outfit, but my date didn't feel comfortable with it,” she said. “I had on silver capri pants - very metallic - and a hot pink holiday stretch blouse with three-quarter sleeves and rhinestone/diamond cuffs and a cowl collar. I went downstairs and Allen said, `Judy Jetson!' My daughter, Lauren, said, `Judy Jetson!'”
(Judy Jetson was the pony-tail-wearing, fashion-forward teen in the 1960s space-age cartoon The Jetsons.)
“I said, `This isn't working for you, is it? Fine, I'm wearing something else,' and I went upstairs.”
Once in front of her closet, she gazed at the other dresses there.
“I thought about wearing one of my little black dresses, but then I thought, `The green velvet.' It's been a great dress. It must be six to 10 years old. I fell in love with it when I saw it - it's one of those where you see it and you know.”
Marla Schecht knows what she means. For the Sylvania Country Club's “Snow Ball” on Dec. 9, she wore a sparkling new dress she found at Neiman-Marcus in Chicago.
“It was love at first sight,” she said of the steel-blue, floor-length gown. “It was simple and that was appealing to me. And the color was a little different. It's not like anything else I have.”
Ditto for Jan Sullivan Edmunds. She had the same experience when she bought the much-loved silver outfit she wore to the Belmont dance.
“I bought it last April at Nordstrom,” she said. “As soon as I saw it, I said `This is it.' That was the dress I was married in.”
All three of the women knew they didn't want to wear black, as so many women do.
“I purposely try not to wear black, because everybody else does,” Ms. Edmunds said.
“Most women do the safe black thing,” Ms. Schecht added.
Mindy Romanoff wore her new sea-foam green gown from Sophia Lustig to the Sylvania club dance for the same reason.
“It was something different - it wasn't your typical black dress,” she said.
Nevertheless, a lot of women remain faithful to black. Jane Elizondo attended the Belmont dance in an old favorite, a floor-length gown in a silk brocade with wide satin straps and a side slit. She bought it the former Lion store. Her reason was fairly prosaic - “I was able to get it altered after I lost some weight.”
But even she has seen a multi-hued, sparkling future.
“There are more colors out there than there have been in quite a while,” she said. “Three, four years ago, everyone was in black. This year, there were quite a few in red, and some gold shades and silver lames. As far as jewelry, the women went from wearing absolutely nothing around their necks to some exotic pieces in jade, turquoise - and the traditional diamonds.”
Five women. Five dresses. Five stories. Which just proves what many folks have known all along: party clothes are much more than something to keep the cold out. They inspire love and friendship, much like the holidays they are worn to celebrate.
First Published December 21, 2000, 12:54 p.m.