Not Your Mom’s Prom: Junior Prom is an Upscale Occassion

Hair scrunchies and flannel shirts–signature fashion trends from our parents’ high school years–have made their way back into style. Nevertheless, some current teen fashion choices remain notably different from our parents–specifically prom dress styles.

According to senior Corey Kelleher, who attended the SHS prom last year, most of the dresses were black, dark blue, or red, and a lot of them had open backs. Senior Emily Blanchard, who also attended the 2017 prom, described the dresses as “simple, elegant, and mostly solid colors, with not too much glitter.”

These descriptions sharply contrast the prom fashion trends during my mother’s prom, the 1990 Notre Dame Academy Senior Prom. My mother described prom dresses from the 90’s as having big shoulders with bows and full skirts. Popular colors were lighter, specifically “white, pink, and teal.” She described her own dress as “white, off the shoulder–it could have passed for a wedding gown.”  Lisa Talbot, whose daughter Natalie Talbot is a senior at Scituate High School, attended the Scituate High School Junior Prom in 1981. She described the dresses from her prom as having “lots of layers of ruffles.” She also emphasized that girls would “buy their dresses out of town so there would be no duplicates,” commenting that students “didn’t have Facebook for that.”

These days, it is not uncommon for girls to have their makeup and hair professionally done before attending the prom. Some girls even book appointments as early as January (for a May prom) because local salons book up fast. According to Talbot, during the 80’s, girls did their own hair. Fashionable styles included “mid-length or short hair pulled back by a headband.” My mother said she styled her own hair “as poofy as possible, with lots of hairspray.”

For my prom hairstyle, the popular “updo,” hairspray was also used–but for the opposite effect: I was trying to keep my updo in place as I danced through the night. I was going for sleek and in place, instead of poofy and frizzy. Recalling the 2017 prom, senior Emily Blanchard noted, “Everyone did an updo–it was rare to see someone’s hair down.”

During my prom, shoe choices were based on personal preference: some girls, like me, preferred heels, and others wore flats.  A few girls even wore Jack Rogers flip-flops, which might have been the best choice since everyone took off their heels as soon as the dancing got started.

According to my mother, during her high school years it was popular to dye your heels to match your dress. This seems to be the starkest difference between 1990 and 2017. I don’t think anyone could dye their shoes now if they tried!