My boyfriend's sister has asked me to help find her a vintage dress for her high school prom. This excites me so much, for a couple reasons. First, vintage dress shopping! I'm so excited to be able to pick out things I would normally love but have no reason to buy, or suggest someone should buy.
And secondly, my prom sucked. I left high school a year early to go to university, so I had to fly back in September to attend my prom. That meant I had to buy my dress pretty early, before I left for school, and before any of the prom dresses were really in stores. I hated my dress. Hated it. Looking back, I can't believe I bought it, or that anyone let me buy it for that matter. It did absolutely nothing for me.
vintage 1950's peach dream party dress
Since our prom was somewhere around September 19th, 2001, I was going to fly back on the 17th or 18th. Lucky for me, my uncle was a pilot and gave me a free ticket to fly back. Then September 11th happened, and all flights were cancelled and all free family tickets were cancelled indefinitely. New flights were impossible to come by, and if you could find one, expensive. In the wake of everything that had just happened, it seemed absolutely ridiculous to spend something like $700 just to fly back for a weekend, to go to a prom of a school I no longer attend.
1940s-1950s gorgeous floral chiffon formal dress
My parents bought me a ticket anyway, and I had to catch a 7 hour bus from my school to New Brunswick, sleep over at someone's house I barely knew, and then catch a flight that morning. By the time I got home I was just exhausted. Exhausted and grumpy, and really didn't feel like putting on a dress I hated. Then I got my hair done, and I don't know what that girl was thinking, but she basically GLUED all my hair to my head. It.was.unflattering.
vintage 1940s cream lace layer tier dress
All complaining aside, I often think about prom and wish I could have just done a couple things over. Everyone talks about what an unforgettable memory your prom is, and I wish I had more of that experience. Mostly I wish I had a better dress.
1940s vintage strapless sweetheart carmine pink party dress
I think that's half the reason I am so excited to help someone else pick out an awesome vintage dress. I wish the concept of vintage had even crossed my mind at 18. I've been spending the morning looking up dresses online, and here are just a handful of the options I would consider if I had do-over.
little miss shunshine vintage yellow party dress
3 comments:
I've drooling over that gorgeous peachy, layered ruffle dress for months... Alas, no funds and no real reason to buy it (well, unless you consider "dancing around my room wearing a pretty a dress so I can feel better" a good reason).
And don't worry about prom. I went, loved my dress, had a good time, but it was just one good time in my life out of many.
haaa awesome story. i'm LOVING these! seriously! my little sister just bought a prom dress and i'm kicking myself that i didn't encourage here to buy one of these. so much more incredible
Oh, those dresses are so beautiful !
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