Attendees of Prom 2024 wore a wide variety of florals, silks, and sparkles that marked the shift away from the traditional prom fashion of full glam that has been noticeable in previous years. The prom dance, composed primarily of juniors and seniors from MICDS, took place on Saturday April 13 at Mahler Ballroom.
Students revealed, despite the dress code of formal attire being the exact same as years past, the influence of trends and the expression of personal style this year, specifically by those who chose to wear gowns or floor-length dresses.
“People have kind of adjusted to wear more like spring dresses that are more current in fashion,” Annabelle Medler ‘24 said, “The dresses this year were a lot more original. People adjusted to their personal style.”
Medler chose to wear an ankle-length baby pink strapless gown with rosettes along the neckline. “It was a little bit more casual than the long sparkly dresses that I think people have worn in the past,” she said.
Other members of the senior class also reiterated Medler’s point. “I saw more florals, I saw more patterns,”Abby Gray ‘24 said. “I just thought that everyone dressed like how they feel most beautiful and I like that.” Even though the dresses are no longer as formal and over the top as before, “everyone can do their own style.” For Gray, she just “wanted to feel like a princess.”
“Some of our kids wore things that were less traditional for prom,” Carla Federman, History Department Chair, said. Federman has been a member of the MICDS faculty for 16 years and has attended the past 13 proms. She explained the change she experienced as students wearing attire that “fit with what made them feel like they were at their best or most fashionable.”
“There was more of a mix of styles,” Medler said. “Traditional is like glittery, like big prom dresses” Genesis Starks ‘24 said. “I definitely think there will be like more of a mix going forward,” said Starks. “People have different trends at every school” and so “we should appreciate all those trends.” Seniors alike worry that if the general ratio of casual to formal and sparkly dress gets anymore skewed towards the casual side, it will feel unacceptable to wear something unique to oneself; this is something they hope that the future will avoid.
This reputation of prom style is, however, changing but not entirely gone.
“I think there were a lot of sparkly dresses,” Hala Nazzal ‘24 said. “I honestly don’t think it matters what people wear to prom. It’s their prom too. It makes no difference, that’s why I wore what I like, too.” This is a common pattern among a majority of the senior class; students aren’t judging others for wearing what they want but rather encouraging it.
“I think people should wear whatever they want,” Medler said. She explained that currently, even though there was a massive uptake in the amount of casual dresses and the overall general appearance of them, she doesn’t “think that anyone’s gonna look like they’re underdressed or overdressed as long as it stays how it is.” Medler and other senior class members have expressed similar concerns for the future.
“It’ll become a point where, like, the people who want to wear traditional prom dresses” will stick out, said Medler. While in favor of the casual dresses and partaking in the trend herself, she doesn’t believe that having them stick out or look out of the ordinary “should be the case.”
Current attendees of prom 2024 or the faculty that observes will not however have a say or have the ability to dictate the route future attendees take with their fashion choices.
“It really depends how casual it is,” said Audrey Walker ‘28. Like the current senior class, she too views the prom dress trends in 3 to 4 years to be “very similar to how it is now.”
However, while the floral and casual dresses were balanced out with a fair amount of sparkly and traditional prom dresses, Walker does not envision the balance to be quite the same. She predicts that the sparkly dress fad may end as she states she doesn’t feel like it will be “what it was a couple years ago – very sparkly.”
