Briefs: Fashion guru offers tips on formal-wear

If you're still looking for the perfect formal dress for New Year's Eve parties, focus only on the most flattering styles and weed through the inappropriate dresses with ease with a few hints from Cynthia Nellis, the go-to fashion guru .

Nellis' list of the 10 foolproof formal dresses will help you eliminate the unsightly and focus solely on those cuts and styles that are most flattering. Her number one pick is the halter dress:

"The halter dress calls extra attention to the upper half of the body, including the face, shoulders and bustline," she writes. "This makes it great to help draw unwanted attention away from heavy hips or legs."

She also suggests skipping a necklace with a halter dress and adding long earrings and an up-swept hairstyle.

Other dress styles she suggests are sheaths for evenly proportioned bodies -- top- or bottom-heavy women tend to not wear this look well -- and a corset dress to add curves to slender figures and structure to fuller figures.

Style guide for bargain-hunters

The January edition of InStyle offers a bargain hunter's guide to style, which includes these tips:

• Know yourself. Be honest about what styles flatter your body type and are appropriate for your age.

• Redefine the idea of "bargain." A low price doens't necessarily equal a good buy, especially if you never wear the item.

• Think of shopping as a treasure hunt. Smart, cost-conscious shoppers live to find that diamond in the rough.

• Shop often. Even if you don't need anything, hitting the stores regularly will educate you about what's out there.

The guide offers 10 pages of tips and photos to help you find the best quality fashions for the best possible prices.

Clinique offers gifts chosen by beauty editors

Clinique has come up with an interesting variation on the gift-with-purchase promotion. From now through June, the gifts will be selected by the beauty staffs of top fashion magazines. First up was Marie Claire, with the gift being offered at Lord and Taylor stores through Dec. 21. Among the products packaged in pretty pink cosmetic cases are Deep Comfort Body Butter and Repairwear Intensive Night; it's free with any $25 Clinique purchase. And there's a bonus -- 12 free months of Marie Claire. Down the road, the staffs of Allure, Elle, InStyle and Lucky will select gift packages.

Product line combats winter hair issues

With cold air, low humidity, brisk winds and dry indoor heat in abundance this time of year, it's no wonder your hair might seem particularly brittle and prone to breakage or a decidedly unwanted flyaway look.

Frederic Fekkai says he has the solution to these problems in a line of products created especially for this time of year. Fekkai Winter Hair includes the Anti-Static Weightless Mist, promising to instantly tame static and flyaways; Speed-Dry Styling Spray, a lightweight spray that accelerates drying time without disrupting thei hair's natural moisture balance; Thermal-Restore Insulating Treatment, for use two to three times per week to help prevent drying and breakage; and the Lift-Define-Shine Styling Compact, containing Root-Lifiting/Piecing Wax for creating fullness and lift at the roots and smooth definition at the ends, and Glossing Balm, to insulate and lock in shine.

The products, which run from $15-$25, will be on shelves in January and will be available at Sephora and Saks Fifth Avenue as well as Frederic Fekkai Salon and Spas.