Shopping for prom dresses

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My daughter’s senior prom is May 1. She and her friend Casey are going together since neither has a boyfriend at the moment. I’m glad she’s not going to let a minor detail like that keep her from enjoying her last high school prom.

Last night, she was actually free - no work, no school, no babysitting - so she asked if we could go look at dresses. Great fun - the mall… But I had nothing more exciting to do, so off we went.

I’m assuming it’s still a little early for dresses to be out, because we went to 5 different stores and the picking were mighty slim. Of course, my daughter knew right off the bat what she didn’t want: no pink, no blue, no strapless, but she did want a “big foofy skirt” - so the search began.

I think pink is a big color this year, because of the dresses we saw, most were pink or a similar shade. Easily half of the dresses were strapless. Some were obscenely expensive. Very few caught her eye. One store had a red dress that looked nice on her, but it lacked the foofy skirt - it was very plain, slim, and rather elegant. The color was quite flattering. In the same store was a dress of a style she really liked, but it was pale mint green, and it made her look washed out.

So, the search will shift to a few local consignment stores. She got her dress for last year’s prom at one and she really liked it. But she doesn’t want to wear it again. And failing that, we could get a pattern and some fabric - I made her first prom dress (which she wore to homecoming the year after that prom) and the style she wants this year is lots simpler than what she picked that first time.

I never went to a prom myself, so this whole thing is somewhat foreign to me. I’m glad my kid is enjoying her senior year, and I’m glad I can do this with her. In a few months, my baby will be living on her own. <sniff sniff> I think it’s sweet that she asked me to shop with her rather than going with her friends.

Of course, that could be related to my checkbook… :wink:

2

Ah, the Prom Dress Search Torture Ceremony. I’ve been down that road. I equate malls to Chinese Water Torture, and shopping in teen focused stores only heightens the experience. With my oldest daughter I flatly refused to go prom dress shopping, so she conned my mom into it. SEVEN HOURS LATER, they finally come across a dress that not only fits Daughter’s idea of prom dress, but Grandmother’s idea of Nonexposing Body Parts and Semi Decent Prom Dress, plus it fit into both of their budgets. (It was on clearance at Debs for $25–they both get major thrills from finding something at the bottom dollar price.)

Fast forward to two years later, when Daughter Two is getting ready for her Senior Prom. “No way,” I told her, referring her back to Grandmother. By chance, we were at Boscov’s searching for Keds on sale, when she begged to cruise through the teen department. We found the perfect (and I mean perfect) dress on clearance–it like it was custom made, on clearance, PLUS, it had a small hook in the back that was broken, so I talked the department manager into taking an additional 10% off the dress. They practially paid me to take the dress.

So, we’re set, and we still have two months to go until prom.

Thank God child number three is a boy.

3

My high school didn’t have a prom, but a good friend of mine is a former beauty queen and homecoming court member and she says consignment shops are the only way to go. Otherwise you’d end up spending a bundle to wear the same dress as a dozen other girls.

4

$25!! Wow - even the consignment dress we got last year ran around $50, I think, although it did come with a necklace and earrings.

The dresses she tried on last night were $99 each. I haven’t needed a formal dress for over 20 years, so I have no idea whether that’s a good price or not. Then there’s the hairdo and the shoes and the flowers and the pictures at the prom, and dinner…

Last year, she and a bunch of friends came to our house and had pizza before going to the prom. That way they could take their time and socialize without standing in line at Olive Garden or where ever else they might have ended up. And pizza for a group was quite inexpensive compared to dining out. They all commented how much fun it was to just hang out around our dining room table.

That was easy. The dress was harder…

Lamia, the major problem we had at consignment shops last year was finding one in her size. They had tons of 4s and 5s but hardly any 12s. There were also a bunch of ugly butt-bow gowns. If all else fails, I have a good sewing machine and the time to whip out a dress for this year.

5

Have you tried David’s Bridal? I understand they’ve got a bunch of bridesmaid’s dresses there. They’re the home of the $99 bridal gown, so maybe something for Perfect Child?

6

I don’t know if there’s a David’s around here, but I’ll check. I really don’t want to make her a dress, but I’m cheap, er, frugal at heart…

7

FCM,

Some bridal shops rent gowns. I realize you’re clear on the other side of the country from me, but we have one not far from us that had the requisite bridal and bridesmaid dresses, but also dresses for proms.

When my middle sister got married last August we rented our bridesmaid dresses. $50.00 bucks got us the dress, (cleaned prior to our use) any needed alterations, and we could then return it and not have it clogging up our closets.

Just a thought…

8

What size and body style is the Perfect Child? I saw cute dresses a couple years ago. They were 2-piece with froofy skirts. I never went to prom, but I wasn’t that interested in dresses at that time anyway.

You might want to look on E-Bay, too. I’ll bet there are tons of dresses just waiting to be adopted!

9

The Perfect Child is a senior?

They grow up so fast.
Hey what ever happened with the spamferries postcards?

10

Not necessarily. I got my prom dress last year at Samuel & Co. and they had a registry where you’d tell them what school you were from. They’d enter in your school name and the style of the dress, and that way you’d know that no one else from your school would have the same dress. Not exactly cheap though, paid $300 CND for one of the cheapest dresses in the store, but it was really nice.

Still have the dress, wore it just last month.

11

How about a discount place like Loehman’s? I was in one last weekend and there were a zillion poofy prom-ish dresses, some in pink even. In fact, there was one grey dress that was so beautiful I nearly bought it on principle (the so pretty you have to own it even though you have nowhere to wear it principle, don’tcha know).

Having a dress made is dead cheap where I live, so I’m not sure, but would it be cost effective to have a dress re-sewn with adjustments in size? Extra fabric to make the skirt more poofy, that sort of thing.

12

How about a discount place like Loehman’s? I was in one last weekend and there were a zillion poofy prom-ish dresses, some in pink even. In fact, there was one grey dress that was so beautiful I nearly bought it on principle (the so pretty you have to own it even though you have nowhere to wear it principle, don’tcha know).

Having a dress made is dead cheap where I live, so I’m not sure, but would it be cost effective to have a dress re-sewn with adjustments in size? Extra fabric to make the skirt more poofy, that sort of thing.

Oh, my students suggest swapping dresses with friends from other schools. Very unlikely the dress would be recognized, if the Perfect Child cares about such things.

13

FCM, I wish I could help, but I got my prom dresses at the Gunne Sax outlet in San Francisco. Really nice dressed for pretty darn cheap. I also found a few formal dresses on Extreme Super Markdown after holidays (I got an $80 dress for $8 once because it had a little hole in a seam that I fixed in a minute). You might want to go online and look for some of the major dress manufacturers and find out if they have outlets nearby.

14

I got my prom dress at a department store for $15.00

Clearance racks. Search the clearance racks.

15

My daughter is the ultimate prom dress shopper. She found a dress that fit her like a glove on the 75% off discount rack, then had a 20% off any item coupon, then the button was missing on top of the dress sooo she got an additional 10% off. I replaced the missing button with a black pearl from a broken earing. She looked great for the discount price of…$7.50. Of course this was 5 years ago.
Moms and girls don’t pay hundreds of dollars to be in the “wear it once” club.

BTW she and her best friend are getting married within 6 months of each other and will have basically the same brides maids. They have agreed to the same color scheme and will choose brides maids dresses together so the girls only have to buy one dress for both weddings. :slight_smile:

16

Whew - guess I struck a chord here…

Ginger, there is a David’s in Jacksonville. I looked at their website - didn’t see any prom dresses under $99, so they’ll be a fallback if we can’t find anything else. Especially since they’re way on the other side of town.

Taters, there is a dress shop near here that advertises rentals - worth checking out. I don’t know if she wants a dress to keep or not…

Kalhoun, she’s about 5’6" and about a size 12 - definitely a curvy build. I don’t know if she’d want to risk E-bay - not being able to try the dress on ahead of time and all.

Zebra, yep, she graduates on May 21. And, sadly, the Spam postcard prank sorta fizzled. After the girl got the first few, her reaction was “Oh, look, more postcards. What’s for dinner?” She had no appreciation!!

Jayn_Newell, I never heard of a gown registry, but I suppose if wearing the same dress as another girl is so devistating, I guess it’s a good idea.

Ashes, Ashes, unfortunately, we have no Loehman’s here, or anything like it that I know of. Nor does she have friends in other schools, because she’d have no problem borrowing, I don’t think.

mlerose, there is an outlet mall down towards St. Augustine. It may be worth a drive down there.

FilmGeek, unfortunately, the clearance racks we checked were overflowing with sizes 4, 5, and 6. We saw nothing even remotely attractive in her size.

I expect the search will continue after she gets off work tomorrow.

17

Aww, I wish my prom dress had had a big foofy skirt. :slight_smile:

Gosh, she’s so lucky to be able to wear colour to her prom. I wore the most boring dress in the universe and it still cost $151, and was the cheapest in the store. The reason being that at my school, girls were required to wear white in the grand march. Blah. White looks horrible on me. Plus, a girl about half my size had the same dress, so of course, even though I didn’t look all that bad (well, except for looking like a ghost, because I was so white, and wearing a white dress with black hair), you just know that all of her friends were saying things like, “Oh, it looks sooo much better on you!” Gah. :stuck_out_tongue:

Personally, I’d go the Value Village route if it were me and I could wear colours other than white. I always find awesome dresses there that I never buy (due to having nowhere to wear them).

Good luck in finding the perfect dress! :slight_smile:

18

When I went to prom 2 years ago, I wore a Jessica McClintock. I love her dresses; they’ve got the poufy skirts, they’re not all strapless, and they almost all are available in sizes up to 16. (They also run a bit large.) IMO, they look a lot better on curvy girls than the stuff you buy in the prom section of the mall.

I’ve been looking for a dress for my formal, and I’m seeing lots of pastels. Your daughter will likely not have a problem with someone else having the same dress if she likes darker colours. My prom dress was red and I was the only one wearing that colour.

Good luck!

19

We hit the yuppie mall across the river this weekend. GAH! Every place was overloaded with pink dresses! And there were some mighty pricey frocks over there, too - I saw one with a $350 price tag. Sheesh.

We ended the evening looking at Simplicity patterns. I don’t know if we’ll go that route. But I’m tired of looking at prom dresses.

Did I mention how much I hate shopping - any kind of shopping??

20

Have you checked the non-teen oriented department stores? Every time I go through those places between November and June, they’re chock-full of formal dresses. In fact, I bought my wedding dress at J.C. Penney’s and got a heck of a deal on it during their Mother’s Day sale. They didn’t have the dress I wanted in my size, so they helped me figure out what size I needed and special ordered it for me. They also offered me the option of getting it in white and silver instead of ivory and gold. If you haven’t been to there yet, it’s definitely something to keep in mind.