By Kate Hamilton, Online Editor-in-Chief
I love the excitement of going prom dress shopping and looking for the perfect dress. Trying multiple dresses in different stores and then finally stumbling across the perfect dress is an exciting process. The stress of finding a dress escapes and planning of the perfect night begins. Everything is going well until you hear that someone else bought the exact same dress!
This is not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, it happened to me twice this year.
It can be frustrating as a girl who went through tons of work going to different stores and trying on several dresses, just to find out that your “special” dress isn’t that special anymore. The dress that you fell in love with is now just a regular dress that someone else has.
There are different ways that we can avoid this issue altogether and prevent all the drama of having to go find a new dress. If there were just a few precautionary measures that we could ensure that everyone has their dream – and unique dress – it would make prom season run more smoothly.
Some prom boutiques have a registry where they write down what dress is bought and what school the person attends. They inform the person purchasing the dress if someone has purchased the same one from their school. This is a great way to stay organized and ensure that each person has a unique dress.
If larger stores like Dillards, Lucy in the Sky, and Windsor were able to create a registry on their website, customers could fill out what school they attend and what dress they bought. This online registry would allow others who were interested in buying a dress from the website to see if someone from the same school bought the same dress by just a simple website search.
Another idea includes having schools create some form of a group chat on a social media platform. Girls would be able to share a picture of their dress so others can be made aware of which dresses are “taken.” Even if not everyone is in this group chat, there could be enough connections where people can let others know if they have seen the dress in the group chat.
Getting that text out of the blue from a random person mentioning that they have the same dress as you and how to go about the whole situation can be sticky. It is always awkward and either someone really wants to be the only one wearing the dress or they really don’t mind if they wear the same dress as someone else.
Both of these situations are tricky but you just have to go around these issues politely and just try to communicate with one another about what you want. You don’t want to see two girls bitter about who looks better in a dress because it can get ugly. If you can’t come to a solution about who should be the one wearing the dress, some great advice was given to me by a friend: if you are going to wear the same dress, just wear it better.
Senior Kate Hamilton can be reached at 22Hamiltonka86@daretolearn.org
