Would you/have you spent hundreds on a prom dress?

[Dramatic]

My daughter is in year 11 and a lot of her friends have already started shopping or already bought their prom dresses. Some have spent hundreds (£350-£500) and their parents have actually taken out payment plans or loans to get them....this seems insane to me? Are shops just ripping people off? Just seems like a ridiculous amount of money for a dress to be worn for a couple of hours.

When I got my 18yo her prom dress we went to an ex display shop and paid around £50 for a gorgeous dress.

Low or single use clothing is environmentally unfriendly. The whole idea of prom is heteronormative. That's enough reasons for me to want to see them end.

If there is one thing on which everyone on this thread seems to agree, it is that most of the dresses are sold or given to charity shops, so they aren't single use.

DD is year 11. We've given her a budget of £200 for prom and she can spend it however she likes. If she wants to spend more she'll have to take it from her own money. Her plan is a fairly cheap dress and shoes, no bag, will do her own hair and make up but might buy some new make up, might get her nails done.

She doesn't feel we've been tight, I've negotiated her father up substantially from what he thought was a fair budget and this is an amount we can afford.

Have you even actually met any teenagers? Give them a smart phone and access to social media and They. Can. Find. Out. Anything.

MI5 should just recruit nosey 14 year olds IMO.

Nope no chance. Only paid £12 for my wedding dress. I'd absolutely do vinted these days.

There's no need to spend money on lots of things but people do ,again if posters can afford it and are happy to spend ££££,s on a prom dress that's their perogative.

You spent,,,,£450, for a dress and then more....I find this quite disturbing. What does that teach your daughter about the value of money etc

I didn't have one, but back then it would've been a discounted number from Debenhams

I think each to their own and what they feel is right for their child. There are many reasons why some will spend more and some will spend less. School in general was a very difficult time for my daughter, she wouldn’t allow a fuss on her birthday for two years. So as prom was approaching and her mental health improved, she agreed that I could make a fuss and I enjoyed every second! Didn’t really think about the cost of the dress, hair appointments, nails etc. What I did treasure was seeing her smile, glow and enjoyed the time we spent together. We really look back on that time fondly and she talks about it often. Very happy memories.

Wow. This all sounds so stressful. Horrible behaviour! Hope you’re ok now x

We were utterly skint when daughter needed prom dress, we ended up in tk.maxx and paid £30 for a “ GUESS “ designer dress, rsp £200, or look on ebay,also look at bridesmaid dresses as there are top designer dresses starting at pennies on auction, its all about being savvy..and bybthe way, her pals in £500 dresses looked no better than she did x X

I paid £550 for DD's prom dress in 2022. She also had her hair dyed, put up, nails, lashes and make up professionally done too.
Do I regret it? Not one single bit!
It does not in fact make me a mug etc as some unkind posters have called others. It's my money to choose to spend as I wish. I didn't get into any debt or anything like that.
My DD had never planned to go to prom and hated school. I was so glad she decided to go and still look at the pictures regularly now.

Lovely I’m so glad she went x

Fortunately my DD was interested in all that malarkey. Her and her friends didn’t want to go to the prom. They felt the Leavers Assembly was bad enough. So we didn’t have to bother. The worlds gone mad.

My sis who never has any money and always struggles got roped into keeping up with the Jones’s and also spent several hundred £’s on a prom dress a few years ago for my niece. She wore it once tried to sell it on a FB site dropping the price about 3 or 4 times and still had no takers so ended up giving it away.

So much pressure on parents for prom. It does get ridiculous, one of my dd friends spent £650, on her dress. Luckily l can sew, my daughter told me what she wanted, l made it for her, cost me £75.00, she looked stunning, l did she'd a tear or two. It has become very competitive, how much a dress can cost, what vehicle they arrive at the venue in, i.e. limousine, horse and coaches etc. It's big business, that's for sure

Ridiculous. More fool them. My first sixth form ball dress was in the sale at River Island, so probably about £20. My second one I wore my Mum's dress from the 1960s.

We had prom this year I had an awful feeling this might be a thing… but as it turned all the girls bar a small percentage went Vinted, or online stores at less than £150 max.. The Vinted options were stunning and so cheap!!! Private School so not as much of a cost issue.. We found as soon as a couple said no to the full on “princess prom” dresses everyone else realised it wasn’t necessary.. it’s definitely a pack mentality with girls!!!! In hindsight I can’t believe I even let it cross my mind to go that route particularly as obvious now those £3/400 dresses will never get worn again as will be way too over the top for more grown up black tie events.. I think almost all have gone on Vinted to be sold already..

I didn’t need to as DD found a second hand one she loved and dd2 dresses very simply however if they wanted to whole experience of dress shopping etc and I could manage it one way or another I absolutely would
They’ve thought about prom night for so long and worked hard their entire time in secondary so I would want that for them if they wanted it.
We had a hairdressser and a little pre prom party for both girls. They only do it once so if you can make it special then why not tbh

There are always loads of once expensive prom dresses on the local Facebook Marketplace, charity shops and dress agencies. It’s possible to have an incredible pre-owned dress for a lot less than brand new. Afterwards you can put it back on Marketplace and get some money back!

A seamstress will be able to alter it so it fits perfectly. I (have to) go to a lot of formal functions through work and have always found real bargains - a lot of the dresses have only been worn once for an evening at most.

For some leavers Prom is a massive social event which they’re excited about and if they’d like to go “all in” it is definitely possible to do so on a budget. It’s absolutely pointless to get into debt for it, and not needed if you’re happy with pre-owned.

I hope your DD finds something she loves and has a really lovely time when it comes round (and I hope neither of you is feeling pressured by friends or peers to spend silly money).

'Its avery expensive event.' Only if YOU allow it to become that! 🙄
Sorry but my mind just completely boggles a the mere suggestion of spending that amount of money on a dress that will theoretically be worn once and whether the purchaser can 'afford it' or not for me is irrelevant, it's frankly obscene...😮

That was going on for my daughter's proms and they are now in their 30s

We wove DDs dress from leaves we found in the wood and did her make up using crushed berries
Do we win?

My dd is 27, so prom was a long time ago but she wore a long prom style dress from Ted Baker. She tried it on in John Lewis and then we found it bnwt on EBay. Shoes and bag were New Look and she (through choice) dud her own hair and make-up. My son is 21. He missed out due to Covid but wore a kilt to his school’s ’winter formal’ which we hired from Slaters.

My DD’s cost £10 in Oxfam and I bought her a matching pair of DM boots for £150 and a mini DM bag for about £40. The dress is languishing in the wardrobe while the boots and bag are used all the time three years later. I’d try, as far as possible to buy things that can be used more than once.

🤣🤣