It's never too soon to be nostalgic for felt boots.

So goes the thinking behind Valenki-2000, a stunning visual celebration of Russia's famously sturdy winter footwear now on display at the Museum of Private Collections.

The exhibit, which literally puts the humble felt boots on a pedestal, features some 50 models of valenki as reinterpreted by as many Russian designers and artists. The result is a stylish and fanciful collection that catapults the boots straight from Soviet closet standby to must-have footwear fashion.

"For the first time in history, valenki have risen from the rank of traditional shoes to being actual works of art and a new original symbol of Russia," said the museum's deputy director, Mikhail Kamensky, with the slight irony of an art historian accustomed to dealing with loftier media.

"Felt is not marble or bronze, of course, but I find it an even more romantic and delicate material," he said. "In the hands of a designer, it can be used to transform valenki into objects of artistic fantasy."

The exhibit, which opened Friday and will remain at the museum only through Sunday, subjects the basic valenok ≈ which is almost primitive in its unadorned state ≈ to a wide range of creative interpretations. Some of the models are striking in their simplicity; others veer into the radical.

According to Evelina Khromchenko ≈ the editor of L'Officiel magazine, which a year ago dreamed up the Valenki-2000 project after presenting its friends and clients with miniature white felt boots for New Year's ≈ the appeal of such an exhibit lies in indulging Russia's dormant affection for its traditional footwear.

"We didn't expect that it would cause such a positive emotional storm," said Khromchenko of the wild success of her magazine's gifts. "But it was clear that people had already begun to forget this part of their distant Soviet childhood and were feeling nostalgic."

L'Officiel decided to run with their success, delivering virgin valenki from the Yaroslavskaya Felt Shoe Factory to designers and artists with the mandate to let their personal imagination go wild. One participant, milliner Violetta Litvinova, went so far as to turn her valenok into a hat ≈ garnished with feathers and an embroidered chin strap ≈ which she wore to magnificent effect at the exhibit's Thursday night opening.

Igor Chapurin took a more stylized approach, putting the boots atop the thick wooden platforms he used in his haute-couture shoe collection. Nina Neretina and Donis Pupis appliqued red felt stars on the boots, saying they were "the first thing to come to mind as a symbol of Russia in Soviet times, when people were wearing valenki."

In a follow-up party at the Oblomov restaurant on Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa, a special award went to Viktoria Andreyanova, who draped her boots in blossoms of fleur d'orange. "We liked all 50 designs without exception," Kromchenko said. "We're not calling any one "the best." But Andreyanova's valenki were chosen because they are a symbol of spring and the flowering of nature."

In the end, Kromchenko said, the project was about much more than indulging society's valenki-nostalgia. "We need to change the symbols that people the world over associate with Russia ≈ negative things like vodka, the mafia and Chechnya," she said. "It's time to smash stereotypes and give the world something light and warm to relate to ≈ like our valenki."

The "Valenki-2000" exhibit is on display at the Museum of Private Collections only through Sunday. 14 Ulitsa Volkhonka, open noon to 6 p.m. Metro Kropotkinskaya. Tel. 203-7998/1546.