Students discuss: the pressure to find the perfect prom dress

Hadley Hoskins
Editor-in-Chief

Prom will be on April 13, from 7 to 10 p.m. at The Hawthorn this year. The event is open to seniors and their guests only.

Prom is set apart from other school dances for a number of reasons, but primarily by the fact that most students only get to experience it once. Additionally, prom dresses are different than other school dance dresses: they are traditionally longer (typically floor-length) compared to the above-the-knee dresses popular at the Friendship Dance and the Winter Dance.

Being a one, sometimes two, time experience, the pressure to find the perfect dress is a lot higher, students said.

“There’s definitely some pressure to have a better dress than homecoming or other small dances, just because prom is more important and more memorable,” senior Ella Beck said.

This often leads to students beginning the process of dress shopping months in advance.

Senior Karsen Kunze explained her process began when she realized others had started looking for their dresses. “I started looking because my friends would be talking about it in my classes, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to find a dress,’” Kunze said.

Beck added, “When people started texting in the Groupchat, I started looking. It stressed me out. I was like, ‘I have to find one before everyone else takes it.’”

For Beck, the process started with looking for inspiration. “I looked on Pinterest for inspiration first,” Beck said, adding, “Then I looked at all the shops around here, at the mall, like Nordstroms, and I asked my friends where they were getting theirs.”

Senior Charlotte Collier took a different approach, explaining, “I knew I wanted to go in person for my dress because I thought that would be the best way to find a dress that fits me the way I wanted it to.”

When searching for their dresses, students accounted for a variety of qualities.

“I picked out my favorite color and a design I wanted, and then like a slit,” senior Lauren Rosales said.

“I wanted to be able to look back on it in 10 years and still think it’s cute, so I tried to find something that’s timeless,” Beck said.

“I just want something that not everyone else has, like a different pattern, or just something that’s not basic… I want something that’s different,” senior Sam Murdock said.

Senior Shane Love added, “I definitely didn’t want it to be traditional, so [it’s] backless and has a cool butterfly.”

“I was looking for something simple, something blue, that was the color I had in mind. Also affordable, I did not want to drop $500 on a prom dress,” senior Katelyn Turley explained about her process.

One of the most important factors for many students was their dress being “prom enough.”

“‘Prom enough’ is when it doesn’t look like it’s a sundress, but it does look like a formal dress that you would wear to prom,” Collier explained.

Wearing sundresses– more casual, flowy dresses– became a trend last year, but senior Vanessa Schroeder said she sees it being popular this year, as well.

“There’s a kind of sundress moment going on for prom, and I don’t know. I feel like it should be a little more elevated,” Schroeder said.

Other trend predictions included satin, a babydoll style, strapless and corsets.

“Classic looking dresses are more trending this year, versus how it was a few years ago where it was really sequiney,” Kunze said.

“I feel like the corset dresses… They’re cute, but I don’t know if that’s going to be a thing forever,” said Murdock.

“The flowy, babydoll dress style [is in]. I don’t think they look good on me, but I like them on a lot of my friends,” Rosales added.

Students said their friends’ dresses and opinions played into their decision on which dress to choose.

“I don’t want my pictures to look stupid, but I’m not going to change my dress or anything because someone else is wearing a color that doesn’t match with it,” Beck said.

After filtering through the thousands of available dresses, if one finds one they like, they send it to “The Prom Group Chat,” a non-school affiliated GroupMe message for anyone who plans on attending Prom and wearing a dress. The idea behind the groupchat is to ensure the same dress is not worn by more than one person.

Senior Mia Willis created this year’s “Prom Group Chat.”

“I wanted to make sure this happened for us because not only is it a good way to make sure we’re not getting any repeats, but it’s also really fun to be able to see girls getting excited about their dresses and support and hype each other up with them, ” Willis said.

“I would not want someone else to have the same dress as me. Especially if it’s someone I’ll be seeing a lot. I always worry about that for homecoming and stuff, so I think it’s a good idea,” said Kunze.

“I think it’s a smart idea, in case you’re buying from this decade, to make sure you’re not matching with anyone,” Schroeder agreed.

Students who didn’t mind duplicating a dress also agreed the idea was cute: “Personally, I don’t really care if someone has the same dress as me. I would probably just take a funny picture with them, but I think it’s cute for someone that actually does care, they can feel secure that no one else is going to steal their dress,” Beck said.

Collier added, “I really like the concept of it, that no one is going to wear the same dress… But at the same time, I also have in my head that when prom happens, we’re going to be gone in like a month. So if I match with someone, I don’t really care.”

All in all, the process to find a dress can take months.

“I started looking online in January, and then I went last weekend. I went to three different places before I decided I wanted it [in mid-February],” Collier said.
“[I’ve] just been looking around for the past couple months, but I found it at the end of last year. I just saw it going through DePop, and then I bought it from the real website,” Love said.

Despite the long process, students ended up with many different styles.

“I chose my dress because I thought it looked like Audrey Hepburn-ey, and kind of Old Hollywood,” Collier said.

“It’s vintage from the 90s because I had to get that,” Schroeder said.

“It’s pink, strapless and kind of tighter… It’s really cute and really my style I think. It’s what I want to portray myself as,” Beck said. “I’m really excited about it.”