Prom outfits and where to get them - please explain!

[GardenAnarchist]

DD is going to Year 11 prom and was telling me how she thinks it works.

Apparently some of the girls in her year bought their dresses ages ago so she has left it late and the selection will be less, there are particular shops that sell said dresses, and they ask what school so they don't sell the same dress to somebody from the same school.

"What if you go to a different prom shop?" I asked.

DD wasn't sure but reckoned the different shops wouldn't have the same selection of dresses.

Is this right?

As an extra complication, DD doesn't actually like dresses - she's a baggy trousers and hoodie short-haired girl. I suggested a trouser suit but woe betide a middle-aged mum with fashion advice! If anybody has any ideas/links, I would be very grateful!

If you are near London then Fonthill Road in Finsbury Park is a road full of prom dress shops. Even if you end up not buying from here you can get some ideas on styles, shoes and accessories just by looking in the windows.

Not near London, but Google tells me there are several prom dress shops in my city. I'll get DD to do a bit of online browsing on their websites in between her GCSE revision, if there's anything that appeals to her we can go and see it in person - having said that, I'm not keen on spending over £100 on an outfit for one night.

my daughter went to prom dress shops so her daughter could try on various styles and colours see which she preferred then she hit the internet to find a dress at a better price. there are lots of budget prom dresses out there or even try bridesmaids dresses. in the end my granddaughters dress was under £100. as most dresses are only worn once do check out eBay and Vinted

FWIW my daughter does NOT do dresses. She wears baggy tracksuits etc and she wanted something very plain and simple.

Then we went to an amazing prom shop in Southampton and she picked this 🤣.

You may be surprised with what your daughter chooses!

One poster on here said she put £10 as her maximum payment on eBay and got her daughter to choose. Apparently she got a lovely dress.

It's definitely a UK thing. All of the specialist prom dress shops we visited said the same. It works the same as bridal shops. You try on sample dresses then yours is ordered in and altered to fit. They cost between £300-800.

My daughter however, got her dress from Quiz. She didn't look out of place amongst the expensive dresses. She tried one on in the shop in a different colour for the fit then ordered an online exclusive colour. Cost £70. You can also look in places like Flannels, some branches of TK Maxx and John Lewis for more budget versions.

However one girl at dd's school absolutely rocked a female version of a tux with a sparkly top.

How about a tuxedo?

My DD has spent £5 on Vinted and is DELIGHTED with her dress. Her friends are equally divided between spending £100s and spending less than £15.

A ladies tuxedo would be good, only thing is DD might say it's me and my stupid trouser suit suggestion again! Does anybody have a link to such a thing?

There are loads OP just Google variations on tuxedo
Ladies dinner suit
Ladies evening suit etc

Most of the girls will wear a slinky prom dress. Some will wear a big bridal shop number. She will stand out if she wears a suit, a jumpsuit or a tux. That's ok, if she's bold enough to stand out - but if she doesn't love attention then I'd personally advise against it.
I'd look on ASOS if you don't want to do the bridal shop thing.

At my daughters y11 prom there were plenty of converse and other trainers.

just buy a new pair so they look fresh.

So wear trainers. I wear mine to posh doos under long dresses. Only way to cope.

My A level DD has senior prom this year and is currently trawling internet for dresses. We did the whole prom shop thing for GCSE yr prom. Wasn’t too expensive, pretty sure we only started looking about this time of year, too. Think we spent about £160, which was waaaaay cheaper than most of the dresses in the shop tho tbh, mostly in the £300-500 range. She suggests JJs house online for reasonable priced prom dresses.

Please consider Vinted or other second hand options, think of the planet. The best option would be to opt out but I doubt your DD would agree.

I work in a particularly cool charity shop, and we sell prom dresses from £15-£150. You can at least try them on! But vinted would be where else I’d try, I’d resell it after too!

Look at Oxfam online or Preworn. I bought a gorgeous green evening dress on there for a very small amount of money and knew no one would have similar. Quite a lot of Prom Dresses seem very expensive and badly made. I think we used to go to Debenhams or John Lewis back in the day. You could also go to a dance shop like my friend used to.

Many years ago, I got my DD's prom dress off ebay. It came from China, but was beautiful, and I managed to sell it again afterwards, so got some of the money back.

Someone near me does a prom pop up shop where they can borrow a dress, suit, shoes etc for free.
They ask for people to donate ones they've worn and have quite a selection now.
Such a good idea, can't believe people spent £££ on them I assumed they just got 'regular' posh dresses.

My daughter wore a hanfu. That's a Chinese traditional dress with a fan and the shoes. One girl I saw wore a beautiful velvet trousers suit. It was in a swanky hotel and thankfully no one turned up in one of those god awful limousine!! Parents dropped them off. It is an all girls school and no boys were invited. They had a great time. Photo booths to take group pictures,music and dancing. It was mainly Asian girls so a lot turned up in beautiful traditional dress.
I would get her a trousers suit and damn the rest of the girls.

DD got a bridesmaid dress from a wedding shop - she knew what colours her friends were wearing and of course they all wanted different.

Then the shoes
And bag
Then jewellery ( she borrowed a couple of things from me)
She did her own hairs, nails, make - up

And they might be hiring a limo for the journey .....

My daughter is exactly the same -hasn't been seen in a skirt or dress since she was about 4.
We went prom dress shopping at her request a couple of months ago and I just couldn't envisage what would happen!
Well we wandered into the first shop called Phase 8, she had a quick rummage through the racks and picked out a long dress, Chinese vintage look to it. Tried it on, looked completely stunning and we bought it - £129. She also got gold, high heeled sandals.Job done in about half an hour!

It really depends on her school, mine were all into the big prom dresses - cost £300 and is in my wardrobe never to worn, I’d like to donate it if there was a local charity to re gift prom dresses as posting it would be expensive.

its right that they limit each dress to one per school - so that it minimises the chance of people having the same dress so her choice may be limited

id suggest going and trying one on - they are heavy but she might love or hate it - then you can decide whether to hunt for something similar second hand or not.

Mine wore converse underneath

id take a look at photos from the last couple of years and see what others wore to get a sense of the vibe - as it does really differ from school to schools and to area - at ours very few wore short dresses/ tuxedos

Docs or Converse under a dress can look very cool and edgy if that's allowed

TH&TH bridal have a fantastic sale on at the moment. Never bought a dress from them but I have bought accessories, and was impressed with the quality and customer service.