How To Give The Prom A Personal Touch
How To Give The Prom A Personal Touch
By Emily Ashbolt
With Newtown High Schoolâs junior and senior proms mere weeks away, many high school girls have their minds set on one thing: the prom dress.
The NHS junior prom is set for Friday March 25, and the schoolâs senior prom is scheduled for April 30.
The prom can sometimes be considered a bizarre ritual, involving dancing and posing. Dress shopping pilgrimages can go on for days, and the date of the prom does not even have to be official before there is hot debate on social networking sites over who is wearing what color and the type of cut of all the attendeeâs gowns.
The problem with all this fanfare, however, is that it comes at a price.
There are solutions. Some of Newtownâs most fashion-forward and inventive people collaborated to give the best tips on looking your best for the prom without stretching the budget. While these tips are budget-friendly, putting a personalized stamp on an outfit can also be a thrill, and there are many options.
Since October, Queen Street Cleaners has been collecting prom dresses for the New Fairfield Community Services Club. Larry Gillotte, owner of Queen Street Cleaners and three other dry cleaners in Bethel, Danbury, and New Fairfield, put out collection receptacles in all of his stores for this organization, which donates dresses in good condition to girls not able to get ensembles themselves.
Donna Bloom, employee at Queen Street Cleaners, was impressed with the way that the community responded to this project.
âOh, weâve had quite a few dresses donated in this time,â she explained. âAt least 30.â
Considering the average price for a prom dress is over $200, that is a significant donation.
This particular drive ended on March 5, but if looking for a dress or interested in donating, check the New Fairfield Community Services Clubâs website, www.csofnewfairfield.com. The Pretty For Prom Gown Sale is also scheduled to be held this Saturday, March 12, from 10 am until 4 pm, at the Company A Firehouse on Route 39 in New Fairfield.
Once a dress is acquired, however, there is still another issue to handle â accessorizing. Adding accessories is the quickest way to make a dress personalized, and give it a unique flare.
Irene Caulfield of Sabrina Style sees countless girls, not just from Newtown and Sandy Hook, but also from Ridgefield and many surrounding areas.
Every year, she said, there are girls who end up with dresses that just donât look as good as they could.
âMost girls who come in to the shop, they have a sense of what they want. Theyâve looked online,â she elaborated. âBut sometimes what they want and what looks good can be very different. The most important thing I can say is, âTry dresses on.â Just try loads on.â
Along with dresses for all formal occasions, as well as tuxedos and formal menswear, Sabrina Style also stocks accessories in corresponding colors and styles to the dresses in stock. But Ms Caulfield advised against blindly following trends, when accessorizing or otherwise.
âThere are always trends that pop up, key colors that are in, but it is always best to go with a color or cut that suits you,â she recommended.
âNude shoes are in style, platform pumps are in style, statement necklaces are big,â she mentioned. However, it is important to make these hot styles work for the individual. âThe thing is, if you have a bold necklace, you have to wear posts, and if you have dramatic earrings, you donât want to wear a necklace. You just donât want to take away from the beauty of the dress.â
Liz Cooper of Great Finds and Designs Consignment, agreed, saying the dress is definitely the most important part.
âThe dress is the main part, and if you bring the dress in, we will try and do everything we can to make it look good with accessorizing â weâll find things that match. Itâs not the common things you see, we even have some local artists to bring their own things.â
Ms Cooper said that consigning is a great way to add a personal touch to any look, for prom or otherwise. One of her most common offerings is jewelry. âWe get unique things in here,â she said, commenting on the original earrings local artists craft just for her shop and the funkier pieces she has received from donators from other parts of the country. âA lot of people come back from these weddings they go to aying, âOh my goodness, everyone loved my jewelry,â that they got here.â
However, do not think that her store is for accessories only. The store prides itself on carrying brands such as Juicy Couture and Ann Taylor, and along with an assortment of designer bags, cool shawls, and classy shoes, she also said that her dress business is thriving. âWe sell a lot of prom dresses, lots of dresses for weddings, shoes bags, jewelry â unique things. These dresses, no one else is going to have them. They are not in stores.â
Ms Cooper said the best part of doing your shopping at a consignment store, however, is the pricing.
âIf you can find a dress at the store for $300, you might be able to find it at to consignment store for only $90. Thereâs loads of consignment stores around,â added Ms Cooper, âLike the Fashion Exchange down the road, Goodwill, etc.â
So the possibilities for finding unique pieces are endless.
Prom can be an extremely exciting, extremely pricy event. However, regardless of oneâs money situation, there are ways to make sure you go to prom looking fabulous. And regardless of where the dress, the shoes, or the bling were purchased, the most important part of prom is undoubtedly the memories that will be made.