Prom season is upon us once again. To a teacher, the prom is a major distraction. My students are illicitly sneaking onto dress sites instead of working on their projects in the computer lab, and some of the guys are comparison shopping for limo deals. The school has an Instagram where dresses are being posted so that no two girls will show up in the same outfit, heaven forbid.
It’s so different from what Obergrande High School’s prom was like ten or so years ago…
Obergrande is a small town, so there’s only one prom. The juniors fundraise like crazy all year to surprise the seniors with a beautifully decorated hall. Both classes are allowed to attend, with sophomores only able to do so as the date of a junior or senior.
Sloane Wallace [Wednesday’s Child: Full of Woe] was in charge of planning the prom in her Junior year. The theme was “An Evening in Paris” and she enjoyed organizing the event so much that she decided to make it her career. Elisa Santiago’s [Thursday’s Child: Far to Go, coming in September] mother sewed Sloane a simple but elegant dress, but Mrs. Wallace rejected it as not being fancy enough. A fuming Sloane wore the frou-frou confection her mother purchased. Elisa wore the gown her mother made under the watchful eyes of her chaperoning father and the admiring gaze of the rest of the attendees. Elisa was selected for the Queen’s court.
Sarah Briony Windsor [Monday’s Child: Fair of Face] attended prom in her junior year with Trip Wallace, Sloane’s shy, red-haired older brother. Her mother had died a year and a half before, so her father had driven her to Albany to buy something suitable at a department store that mostly sold cocktail dresses for middle-aged women. She was crowned Prom Queen in an off-the-rack gown that the cheerleaders thought was couture. Her senior year, of course, she did not go to prom. She was doing a Winter Cover-up campaign in Iceland while her friends were deciding just how bare to go.
Grace Fuller’s father, the Pastor of the Obergrande Community Church [Tuesday’s Child: Full of Grace], had nixed her dress as having too much cleavage, so her mother artfully added some lace to the baby blue sweetheart neckline. (Sloane helped her remove it in the ladies’ room, and Grace sewed it back on before going home.)
Elisa’s strict parents had permitted her to stay until midnight her Senior year but only after Sloane informed Mrs. Santiago that the valedictorian was required to make a speech. Her long navy gown had a lace overlay, and she had borrowed her mother’s pearl earrings.
Sloane herself wore a dazzling green cocktail dress that year, purchased to show off her great legs and her first pair of Jimmy Choo’s. (The dress was the result of a shopping trip to New York City with her father. The matching grass stains were the result of other extra-curricular activities.)
The entire Girls’ Track Team arrived late, but jubilant, after returning victorious from States. Corinne wore a timeless gold dress, a fitted one-shoulder with a bit of ruching, accessorized with her medal.
So how was your Prom? Any regrets over what you wore?
Photo courtesy of Benjamin Earwicker
No regrets at all! 🙂 Loved both of my proms and wore “off the rack” dresses featured in “Seventeen” magazine’s prom edition, and purchased “on sale” at A&S, to each. I was able to “recycle” the one I used for Junior year for my cousin’s wedding, because it was “tea length,” and appropriate for a variety of more formal events. 🙂 This is the same style and color of the dress I wore Senior Year: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/455285843552311539/
I always did find it a little silly that some girls would get upset if another girl showed up in the same or a similar dress to their own. It’s a prom, after all, and unless you’re willing to spend a lot of money for a custom designed gown, the selection is going to be somewhat limited each year. Look good, but more important, kick off your shoes, have fun, have a great time with your friends – and don’t worry too much about what the dress is going to look like the morning after! 🙂