Manhattan Black & White New Year’s Eve Ball was a monochrome farewell to 2008's bleeding red year.

The John Jacob ballroom at the exclusive St Regis hotel harked back to the 1900s and bade good riddance to the year of money market meltdown, chiming in better times in 2009.

Irony well met, this is the year to party, because it’s the year that makes money redundant!

More than 200 of the cultured, elite caste trained in on black and white tails, according to the dress code in the manner of Manhattanite Lady Astor’s balls of the 1900s.

In her heyday, the lady, who had both political career and scathing wit, would invite 400 to dance the night away in her New York City mansion because she had room for only 400.

The St Regis Singapore – Lady A’s heir, John Jacob, established the first St Regis in NYC – has room for more than 400, but conservatively, after last October, only 200 braved out to party.

And what a swell party it was, co-presented as it was by Fide, the spirited folks who add “original” into design, construction, renovationand events.

An excellent 16-piece big band swung into Glenn Miller, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern, and guest singer Alemay Fernandez’s jazz notes hit the spot.

At $500 a plate (actually six courses plus a generous buffet supper at 12.15am), the champagne was as much as you could quaff and then one more for the road.

“We’ve got a chauffeur for the night,” bubbled the elegant Celeste Basapa.

Top hats were doffed, foxtrots cut the rug, masks and feathers hid nothing, designer Kevin Seah showed a selection of belle fashions and party poppers were stylishly in white and silver.

The room itself was exquisitely appointed in its theme colours, overhung with balloon moons. Fred Astaire and Truman Capote would have felt right at home in our version of Upper East Side society, Malaysian royalty and foreign dignitaries.

The one and only David Gan was a Peter Pan pixie picture in Jil Sander, Alexander McQueen, Hermes, Gucci and Paloma Picasso. “Whatever, you must be current,” he said.

And still solvent.

Stylist Karen Ng doesn’t just shop in Harrods; she buys the owner’s (Mohammed Al-Fayed) daughter’s (Jasmine de Milo) designs. Daniel Boey, fashion show producer, came in on all threes, if you count his walking cane – one of eight he owns since he took an unfashionable fall during the Singapore Fashion Festival last year.

Stock market crash? Who’s counting? Not the ones still buying from Azzedine to Ungaro (girl, it’s from Chanel to Valentino) and thank heavens diamonds are forever (these are new, thank you).

Mr and Mrs Kwek Leng Beng, their sons, Sherman, 32 and Kingston, 27, and friends made up a top table. Mrs Cecilia Kwek, who bought the art pieces you see in the hotel, has purchased eight new works. “Concentratingo n local artists,” she smiled.

A pair of exuberant students opted out of Oreo (black and white). Laughed Maryann Soh and Winner Drahma (both pictured above): “We like to stand out!” They did, as did the evening – it was an outstanding one. Now, if the year will follow suit...

Overheard:

“I married beneath me. All women do.”

“One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.”

“The only thing I like about rich people is their money.”

“You know his wife? She has 52 Hermes bags, one for each week in a year.”

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 4, 2009.