the nightmare that is prom dress shopping....help me!

[ThatVikRinA22]

DD is 15 and is already driving me insane about a prom dress - all her friends have theirs apparently.

i have looked online and if you do a search for ball gown or prom dress google treats you the most tacky looking, polyestery chiffony shite going.

is there anywhere i could look that is nice?

DD is very sensible and is happy to have a short dress that she could wear again.
she wanted a champagne colour strapless dress with a beaded bodice or similar - she is open to suggestion however...as in not quite made up her mind about a long dress or a short one but she does not want anything tacky or puffy....

she is 5ft 7 tall and a size 8 - 10 with legs at least 5 inches longer than mine (im 5ft 4!!) (jealous? moi??) she is all leg.

help me! please!

have been there and suffered you have my sympathy
is the Monsson sale still on? that would be my recommendation
DD1 got hers off ebay, I was a bit sceptical, but it was actually nice and not meringuey at all

Most bridal shops do prom dresses, Coast is good for prom type dresses but very expensive (£250).

Any good?

There's quite a few champagne coloured ones

Wrong size, but how's the style?

Baragin

Here?

Here?

More structured

Wrong colour?

My favourite

Off brief but I like it

Long

We bought my DDs in Debenhams last Saturday. They have several nice ones. Also House of Fraser had some nice ones. Neither shop's dresses were as gypsy wedding-ish as the dresses in the bridal shops, and were also a lot cheaper (£100+ instead of £300+).

ASOS - you might have to search through a lot of crap, but there's usually some great stuff on there, especially if you want to avoid the fluorescent meringue style...

thanks tethers - im also trawling the web looking.....she has quite fixed ideas about what she wants but im afraid what she wants is a bit - how do i put this - a bit jordon - esque.....

i thought this was lovely but she doesnt like the ruffles....its very close to what she wants though.

she will no doubt end up spotting something totally different (i hope!) she is umming and arrhing about whether to go short or long.....there are some beautiful elegant dresses around and i would prefer he to look elegant....i also think she would suit a colour more than champagne - she is pale with long blonde hair....

The ones I've seen in bridal shop windows were beautiful not gypsy wedding style at all, 50's knee length prom dress style in gorgeous quality heavy satin type material. What colour are you hoping to steer her towards VicarInaTutu?(loving the Smiths reference btw)

TK Maxx is worth a look too, and she's unlikely to end up wearing the same as anyone else if she gets a dress from there. I find the girls usually end up in four distinct categories: Barbie/ Gypsy wedding OTT, Short n clingy OTT, long and lovely, short(er) and lovely. Most of them seem to have the Eureka moment when they find The Dress, though, regardless of style.

Do you have any 2ndhand dress shops near you? Are they called dress agencies? I bought my prom dresses from one near me, they'd only been worn once... and then I took them back and sold them back!
Have a google.

Be careful of getting a dress that is too pale - one girl at my dd's school wore one last year and they all thought she was wearing a wedding dress! My dd has got hers from Debenhams, but there were lots of nice dresses in TK Maxx.

Long is the thing round here. Very few short dresses. Better check with DDs mates before buying short.
Get out with her and try dressed on. They look completely different on from on the hook, or on a model.

Coast?

www.coast-stores.com/mahiki-metallic-dress/up-to-70%-off/coast/fcp-product/2224785733

If you are near London go to Fonthill Road at Finsbury Park. There are about 20 ladies' clothes shops, mainly wholesalers, that all sell prom dresses. It is great for browsing through a myriad of styles, materials and colours and being able to try them on. Saturday morning is best. If dd2 could find what she wanted there (incredibly picky) then there's a good chance other teenagers might! I'm not even going to try anywhere else for dd3. Good luck!

I have boys but I loved seeing all the girls arrive at DS1's prom last year. There were only two short dresses out of about 70 girls. They all looked gorgeous though, even the big fat gypsy wedding ones .

Agree with TKMaxx. Also our Debenhams have recently introduced a cheapish department for younger women. Can't remember the name of the brand and not all Debenhams have it, but if you have a large branch near you, might be worth a look.

Would say it is worth trying to find out whether most people wear long or short - nothing worse than being the only one in short if everyone else is wearing long. There is a big difference between our local schools. At the comp, they mainly seem to go for long 'fancy' dresses, whereas the grammar seem to favour short styles.

I was going to suggest lipsy. Got my bridesmaids' dresses from there. They often have short prom like dresses.