SAN JOSE, Calif. — Mariah Miller had already tried on — and rejected — dresses in Electric Blue, Lemon Drop, Purple Passion and Shimmer Moss, colors created to inflame the imagination of 16-year-old prom girls like her.
By the time she arrived at Trudys formalwear store in Campbell, Calif., on Saturday, Miller and her four-woman prom posse had trudged through the changing rooms of prom shops in Walnut Creek, Concord and San Jose the previous weekend.
Her grandmother, Pam Tsouvas, survived that 12-hour march — but just barely. “We must have tried on hundreds of dresses,” she said, “and we found nothing.”
By “we,” of course, she meant her picky granddaughter, a junior at Liberty High School in Brentwood, Calif., where the theme of this year’s prom is “Midnight in Paris.” Mariah seemed to know precisely what sort of evening wear was required for such an occasion — not that she’s ever been anywhere near Paris.
Into the life of every high school girl come a few big moments, and for some one of the biggest is the prom. As prom season approaches, picking out the perfect dress for the most important school dance of the year is the high school equivalent of preparing to walk the red carpet at the Oscars. It’s a rite of passage, a ritual that prefigures the selection of the wedding dress to come.
In the run-up to prom season, the wait for a dressing room on Saturday afternoons can stretch to an hour.
Mariah’s grandmother was impressed with the store’s inventory, which included Spanx — an elastic hip flattener — and some accessories that Mariah was stuffing into the halter tops of every dress she put on.
“If you need the boobs, they’ve got ‘em,” Tsouvas said.
Prom dresses have gotten a lot more off the shoulder than they once were.
“The dresses are designed based on what celebrities are wearing, what’s hot in Hollywood,” said Trudys manager Debbie Azevedo Azevedo. “When they see a celebrity wearing a plunging neckline, our prom girls want that plunging neckline. They want the very low, dramatic backs.”
“I think girls nowadays are more focused on what they look like at prom than the actual dance itself,” said Marina Schlaefli, a senior shopping for her third successive hot pink prom dress. “The funnest part is to get dressed up.”
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
