What to wear in St Barts for New Year's Eve

St Barts, the jet set's winter address

There are islands, and there is St Barts. Barely ten square miles of hills, white sand and red roofs, a French village with a Caribbean temperament, and a guest list that would make any party planner faint. Between Christmas and New Year, the it-crowd migrates south: the gallerists from Chelsea, the creative directors from the Marais, the girls who spend their summers between Capri and Mykonos and their winters right here. Everyone knows everyone, or pretends not to.

What sets St Barts style apart is its apparent ease. Nobody dresses up; everyone simply happens to look perfect. The island has no time for logos shouted from across the room. It rewards the pieces that tell a story: a sarong knotted just so, a kaftan that catches the evening light, a bag embroidered with a word that only you understand.

The St Barts dress code: barefoot luxury

If St Barts has a dress code, it is this: luxury, but barefoot. By day, swimwear is a complete outfit, worn under a sarong or a shirt for lunch. In the evening, the dresses grow longer and lighter, the jewellery a little bolder, and the shoes remain flat, because the harbour cobblestones and the sand have the final word. Elegance here is a question of fabric and movement, never of effort.

Three rules, then. Choose fabrics that live with the heat: terry, lycra, lurex, silk. Keep one statement piece per outfit, and let the rest whisper. And always bring something to knot: a scarf top worn on the boat, around the hair, or over your shoulders when the trade wind rises at sunset.

By day: the beach, the boat and the beach bag

Mornings in St Barts are spent on the sand, afternoons on a boat, and the transition between the two takes about four minutes. The ideal day outfit is therefore a swimsuit and a sarong you can tie in a hundred ways: as a skirt for lunch, as a dress on the deck, as a scarf on the way back. Our asymmetric lycra sarong and its fringed hem were made for exactly this kind of day, while the long sarong becomes a beach dress in a single knot.

Then comes the beach bag, the real centre of gravity of the day. It holds the towel, the sunscreen, the book you will not read, the swimsuit that is still wet. Ours is called the Maxi Balagan, and the one in the picture above is embroidered Tan in St-Barth, Love in Capri: the jet set's whole year, embroidered in two lines.

Why choose a terry beach bag

Because terry is the fabric of the beach. Our beach bags are cut from Oeko-Tex certified bamboo terry: soft as a bathrobe, absorbent enough to welcome a damp swimsuit without a fuss, and supple enough to be crumpled at the bottom of a tender. At 40 × 42 × 10 cm, the Maxi carries the whole day; for those who travel light, the Small Balagan (25 × 25 × 8 cm) takes just the essentials. Each one comes with a braided chain in the colour of your choice, and a bag charm for the final touch.

From sunset to dinner: kaftans and sarongs

Around six o'clock, the island changes skin. The light turns golden, the boats come back into the harbour, and the swimsuits disappear under something more fluid. This is the hour of the kaftan. Our lurex kaftan, with or without fringe, goes from the beach to the dinner table without changing anything but the earrings. Prefer a two-piece? Tie the asymmetric lurex sarong over a lurex scarf top: the effect is that of a dress, the freedom is that of a swimsuit. Every one of these pieces belongs to our resortwear collection, designed to go from the beach to dinner without a change of outfit.

What to wear on New Year's Eve in St Barts

New Year's Eve in St Barts is the night the whole island has been waiting for. The harbour of Gustavia fills with yachts, the terraces with friends, and at midnight the fireworks light up the bay while everyone pretends not to look for a familiar face. It is the one evening when you may shine, as long as you can still dance on the sand.

The ideal New Year's Eve outfit in St Barts is light, it moves, and it catches the light: a lurex kaftan, a long dress, or a sarong worn as a skirt with a silk top. The shoes stay flat; the heels, as always, were an excellent idea until ten o'clock. As for the bag, keep it small: a mini evening bag on a gold chain, such as our Minuit au Soleil in Golden Hour, holds the phone, the lipstick and the key to the villa, and leaves both hands free for the champagne. For those who carry a little more, the Knot Bag in lurex ties around the wrist and sparkles with every gesture. Curious about what fits inside? We emptied one in What's in my bag? Evening Edition.

What to pack for St Barts

For a week on the island over New Year, a carry-on is almost enough. Here is the list:

• Two or three swimsuits, because one is always drying.
• Two sarongs: one for the beach, one for lunch.
• A kaftan, which does the work of three dresses.
• A light dress or a lurex set for New Year's Eve.
• A silk scarf, for the wind on the boat and the cool of the evening.
• Flat sandals and espadrilles. The heels can stay in Paris or New York.
• Sunglasses, a hat and high-protection sunscreen.
• A roomy terry beach bag for the day, and a mini evening bag for the night.

Bring the island home, embroidered

The best souvenir of St Barts can be found right in Gustavia: our bags spend the season at Mamour, one of the island's boutiques, ready to leave with you. Or have it made to measure: the name of the island, embroidered on the bag that came with you. In our atelier in Paris, we embroider a place, a date, a phrase or your initials on every beach bag and every evening bag: Tan in St-Barth, the name of a villa, the date of a New Year's Eve you will tell your friends about. It is said that in St Barts, what happens on the island stays on the island. We would make one exception: what is embroidered on your bag.