How much for a prom dress?

[Kixxy]

DD sounded the warning bell today that, now Xmas is over, it's time to start looking for a prom dress (argh! More expense!)

Can I ask how much you've spent on a prom dress in recent years? Just looking for a rough average across the answers I get, so that I can budget accordingly!

Was also thinking of giving her an overall budget, so dress then any extras like nails, accessories, hair and makeup etc so that costs don't spiral!

I was similarly 'warned' last week and went for a preliminary look around the shops with my daughter, just to get an idea of styles/prices.

She tried on one dress and it looked absolutely stunning. It helps that she is tall and very slim size 6. About half my width and twice my height.
I bought it for £195 in the sale, reduced from £295. She got high heeled gold sandals for £37.
I thought this was more than enough but my daughter hasn't worn a dress since she was about 6 - she lives in baggy jeans, trainers and huge T-shirts and I have to admit that I was quite overwhelmed by the transformation. It bought tears to my eyes and I still can't quite get over it!

Hadn't heard of Disturbia before. Thanks for the tip. They have some lovely dresses www.disturbia.co.uk/collections/dresses-uk-6?filter.v.price.gte=&filter.v.price.lte=&filter.v.option.size=UK+6&filter.p.product_type=Dresses&filter.p.m.filter.length_fit=Midaxi&filter.p.m.filter.length_fit=Maxi&sort_by=price-ascending

@NeedToChangeName DD has this Corset dress not for Prom but it is lovely material, and their are some really nice details on it. I think generally their stuff comes up a bit big and we had to send the first dress back but their Customer Service was great too. DD is into the Dark Academia look rather than gothic but the site works brilliantly for both

Someone recently had a similar post and a lady replied and said she got her daughter to look at prom dresses on eBay and she put in £10 maximum and apparently got a splendid dress that her daughter wanted. I was amazed. I got a dress for £4 myself for my Mum's special birthday party and kept thinking surely i am wearing the cheapest dress out of all the women there yet I was able to get the colour I wanted.

My dd prom was 2 years ago, we got hers from Quiz and with a promo code it was £75. It was stunning and looked more expensive than it was. Some of her friends spent £400 on a dress. Make up was £45, hair £20 and nails £35.

I bought one from hocogirl.com for under £80, and the quality was pretty good! 🎀 Setting an overall budget is definitely a smart idea—besides the dress, there are so many extra costs like nails, accessories, hair, and makeup that can quickly add up. Does your DD have a preferred style or color in mind?

We are just starting to have this conversation. My DD is not a dress girl, so will never wear the datn thing again and there is so much pressure to conform What styles are fashionable now? Some are apparently wearing very princess like dresses ( sort of raunchy gone with the wind) and the alternative seems to be dreadful mermaid shapes.
All are awful on 15/16 year olds. It makes me think of those baby parades where toddlers are wearing make up.

Anyhow… I accept I need to buy a dress and shoes. We’ve looked at Stacey’s (sp?) and Windsor. Does anyone have suggestions for dresses under £100 based in the UK ( for ease of return) ?
Thanks in advance!!

We went into a prom dress shop this week… They had price tags of upwards of £700!

DD1: £90 for the dress (think Victorian Burlesque dancer type dress, hi-lo), shoes she already had, hair and makeup £30, tights £8, jewellery £0 because I made it from pieces I already had.

DD2: £35 for the dress (went for a cocktail style sheath), £0 for shoes (already bought for a wedding), £10 for makeup (hair not an issue, already had a pixie cut).

@pointythings Where did you get the dresses from?
I think a long sheath like dress with spaghetti straps is more my DD's style

@aliceinawonderland DD1's dress came from Burleska clothing - they have a shop in Camden where you can try on, but they are also online.

DD2's dress came from Roman - they had a shop near us at the time (Suffolk). It wasn't sheath with spaghetti straps, it was short sleeved, just below knee length, very fitted and black with a bold rose print.

I would really recommend looking on Vinted. It takes patientce, but you can get some absolute bargains. This is also the season when charity shops have prom dresses in. We got DD1's 6th form formal gown in a charity shop. She's still got it - it's a designer number and it cost us all of £17.

@pointythings
Thank you so much! Will try those shops and Vinted.

We bought from JJs House after hearing of friends spending £400-500 in a local shop. JJs send you a few dresses to try on at home for a fee of £18 so you can check fit and length etc, you can then order what you want (they send a discount code) with free made to measure and free shipping.

I’m impressed with the quality for the money - my daughter’s dress cost £112 and isn’t much different to the ones costing 4x as much!

DD bought her dress and shoes on Vinted for £10 each.

If you look at the gowns in ‘prom shops’ they are exactly the same as SHEIN stock. They just charge much more! I learned this the hard way after spending £££ on DD, and her friends was from SHEIN and arguably nicer.

If you ask around charity shops, you may have one that will soon be putting out a prom dresses.

I have a few near me that do this, and a couple years ago my DD got a lovely dress for a tenner, a little less for a dressy jacket to go with it, I think the most was spent on the new shoes.

My other DD got a nice suit for less than £20, with a hat that cost £40. She already had the shoes.

Just collected my Daughter's. It was £650, with another £70 in alterations. Never again! Thank goodness my other DC are boys!

Just got DDs, it was £295 from a dress shop. She loves it.

For a schoolkids party for an idea imported from the US for the express intention of creaming parents for more money on consumerism
Not a hance
To be fair mine would never expect that
My year had a house parties with beer wine music which was much better than this organised fake nonsense

£100 was the average for dd and her friends. Ours is like a school disco in a hotel though. It really wasn't worth spending hundreds of pounds. They got a sausage from a bucket for food. It definitely wasn't a posh affair.

Dd's was £60 from Quiz in 2019 but should have been £80. If I was buying now I would probably be prepared to go up to £150

DD2's was £8 from Shein earlier this year! She's tall and very slim (dress is a UK size 6) and she looked absolutely beautiful in it. We didn't deliberately set out to pay so little, Shein just had a colour she liked in a size that fitted. Some of her friends' parents paid several hundred pounds.

I agree entirely that 16 year old girls all look stunning already and too much “professional” makeup/stylised “American” hair dos, actually detracts from their loveliness.