By ERIC WILSON

Here we are at the outset of what is shaping up to be a six-week season of stinginess. Holiday festivities, we are told, are being downsized. So we can choose to dress in a manner appropriately morose for the times and prove the timeworn adage that hems fall with the stock market. Or we can be bold.

A party was given recently by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Vogue to alleviate the pain of cash-starved young designers with financial prizes and mentoring. The dress code on the invitation said “Dress Up,” but practically no one took that as a reason to wear black. Rather they seemed to take it as a challenge to dress in a spirit that could be described as Up With Fashion.

The party swarmed with famous models wearing the shortest of skirts and socialites clinging to their decadent dresses. All in all, the crowd reflected the upbeat and offhand style that seems to define the look of the season.

“I actually feel very bright and optimistic,” said Dr. Lisa Airan, a Manhattan dermatologist, who was wearing a snow-white silk Lanvin dress with feathered frippery around the bodice, white leather biker gloves from Rodarte and hot pink pumps by Giambattista Valli.

As Alexander Wang, the designer who won the CFDA/Vogue prize this year, said in Harper’s Bazaar, the old rules of dressing appropriately for holiday parties no longer apply. No daytime rules or nighttime formality. Shorts can work if they have style.

That may sound like a flippant approach to the subject of party dressing, given the troubles in the economy at this moment. But dressing up can still have an emotionally uplifting effect, even if most people are doing their shopping in their own closets.

Elie Tahari said that taffeta gowns and extravagant looks are going to be less popular than something that can be worn beyond the season, like skirts and jackets that can be layered and enhanced with a piece of jewelry.

“Women want to dress up and make themselves feel good,” he said, “but they don’t want to spend a lot of money.”

At the same time, it has not gone unnoticed that the Obama family is setting an Up With Fashion example for America that is lifting designers’ spirits. Ever since the Obamas appeared on election night as a coordinated fashion tableau, as if they had just stepped out of a holiday greeting card portrait, sales of red dresses have been terrific, said Kay Unger, who makes party frocks.

Customers are being more inventive, she added, by buying short-sleeve jackets that can be worn over a dress or with long gloves, then wearing the same jacket with jeans for an office look.

The Little Black Dress remains a popular choice, but, Ms. Unger said, there is just as much interest in flashier metallic fabrics like bronze or brushed gold, which have a more limited shelf life.