The scene was outside the dressing-room of a Fifth Avenue
department store on a floor dedicated to a world I would best describe as
“Dancing with the Stars” meets “Dallas” meets “Gossip Girl”. Women mainly of a
certain age (we all obviously had 17/18 year daughters so you can do the Maths)
were standing around in our sensible shoes, jeans and black sweaters while very
certain young-aged women in flip-flops, cut-off jeans and white T-shirts were
clutching arm-loads of dresses, each the opposite of each other – long, short,
puff-balled, sleek, mono-chromed and multi-coloured.
In Prom Dress World, trying is trying. When faced with
thousands of strips of material (and sometimes it is indeed just strips) there
is no other option but to hit the dressing-rooms. All around me I could hear
Prom-Mums whispering the same mantra – “Just try it on to see how it looks”.
Result – huge queues outside the changing-booths and some very disgruntled
Prom-Mini-Mums. Because they want Prom-minis, not the floor-length fuchsia
organza creation their Mum is insisting they put on.
Not that a shorter dress means a smaller price tag. According
to a recent telephone survey carried out by Visa, families with teens are expected to
spend an average of $1,078 this year on Prom, up from $807 in 2011. A Visa
official described it as “social-arms-race” spending and I’m not arguing with
them. Tickets, dresses (where less usually costs more), make-up and hair appointments, limousine rental (dance poles or smoke machines optional),
flowers, after-prom parties and photos all add up.
What the survey also discovered was that spending varied
dramatically based on family income. Families earning less than $20,000 will
spend an average of $1,200 while those earning between $20,000 and $29,000 will
fork out an average of $2,635. At the other end of the scale, those earning over
$75,000 will only (if you can say that) spend around $742.
You would be excused if you thought the whole experience sounds like a dry run for a much-hoped-for-one-day-in-the-future wedding. Many of the shops that specialize in Prom dresses are indeed bridal salons. And
apparently you should buy Prom dresses one size up from your usual as they run at
least one size smaller “like bridal gowns”. This also means inevitably any
dress you choose needs to be altered for a perfect fit so ideally we should
have started our hunt for THE dress several months ago.
Perhaps this accounted for the many frazzled and
panicked looks on local aliens’ faces this weekend. Or perhaps it was because
we kept on seeing the same panicked faces time and time again. In keeping with
the grand old European tradition (the word “prom” originates from the French “promenade”
when guests marched at the start of a ball or formal event), it seems there is
also a set “Grand Tour” of prom shops, Europe being downsized to a 25-block
square in Midtown.
The obvious worry is that if we are all going to the same
shops and (not intending to buy a one-off-the-shoulder designer gown) are
looking at the same racks of the same multiple dresses, how do you avoid the
ultimate Prom disaster – being a Prom Twin as opposed to the Prom Queen. This
is where social media comes into its own. Apparently Mini-Mum’s class of 2012
is posting details of frocks so there is no fracas on the big night.
I say “frocks” plural as for many, the actual formal is just
the formal start to the celebrations. Organised after-prom parties such as sunrise
cruises are understandably big business. But they have an extra dimension here
given the minimum drinking age is 21 and Prom-goers are generally in the
17-19 year range. Hence the latest addition
to my Subalien dictionary, the term “No ID event”. Initially I mistakenly interpreted this as “No
questions asked” but quickly realized I was heading down the wrong track when I
read the tagline “Unlimited juice and soda all night”. But I have to admit it
does sound cooler than “Teen Night Event”.
Many Prom-goers prefer the private party option and stories
abound of chartered buses (dance poles or smoke machines again optional) picking
up crowds of kids after the main school event and whisking them away for a
weekend of festivities at someone’s house in the Hamptons. Hence the need for
more than one frock (we would hope). I hope they also have the foresight to organise transport back at the end or it could be a very long "promenade" home.
For those of you interested, our own personal Grand Tour proved educational but shopping-bag free. Given Prom is such a cultural milestone in our current planetary home, we have jokingly suggested Mini-Mum go dressed in an Irish potato sack to represent her national heritage. As Male Mini-me sweetly said, she would still look beautiful. If not "Prom(enade) Queen", at least "Pommes (de Terre) Queen".
