<p>OK - I am new at this (long time lurker, never posted), so let me know if this should go somewhere else…</p>
<p>I, along with a few other moms, had the idea of taking our daughters on a weekend shopping trip for prom dresses. We are within driving distance of just about any major city in the Northeast, or Ontario/Quebec, but may just fly in to NYC or Boston if there is a good weekend fare. Has anyone done this? If you live by one of these cities, are there any stores or shopping areas you can recommend? Or did you do anything else in addition to the shopping?</p>
<p>I don’t know that it’s worth it, as long as you have a good mall nearby. I live in the suburbs of NYC and find that going into the city for shopping is a more recreational activity than a necessary one. Also, New York State has sales tax on clothing purchases of over $100 (or $110). New Jersey, on the other hand, has no sales tax on clothing, which represents a considerable savings even if you are buying a $200 dress and a $150 pair of shoes–which I guess is consdered not expensive by current standards. (It isn’t easy to get to the best NJ malls without a car, so that isn’t really a viable option for people coming to NY as tourists by air.)</p>
<p>My daughter, now in college, went to three proms in the course of her high schoolls career (that is, it was always the school’s junior/senior prom but started going as a soph). So we have been through three prom dress purchases. Each time she was able to get a lovely dress in the $200 to $325 range at a local mall department or specialty store. (She did go into the city at least one year to look at Bloomingdale’s, but it was neither necessary nor productive.)</p>
<p>Here is what her prom dress history includes:</p>
<p>One year it was a Shelly Segal/Laundry dress purchased at Nieman Marcus in a mall (a store I never shop in but which she went to with a friend and then called me to come and approve before purchasing). Nieman did great alterations, not free but beautifully done, even adding straps to make the dress more secure. The other years it was Nicole Miller and BCBG, from those company’s freestanding stores in a mall. She has also done well with short party dresses from Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdale’s mall stores–again, usually BCBG or Laundry.</p>
<p>It also seems to me that prom dress preferences seem to vary from place to place. At her school girls mostly wore long dresses. Where she now goes to college, many of her friends wore short dresses to their proms. (In college even formals are generally short-dress affairs.) So shopping for a prom dress away from home isn’t necessarily the key to getting the “right” dress. If you really want to make the trip, of course come to New York, because that way you will have great flagship department stores that are bigger and more varied than their mall stores, which vary quite a bit from mall to mall. (Bloomingdales and Lord and Taylor are my favorites.) But keep in mind you will pay considerable tax and either need to have a lot of stuff sent home or else have to worry about baggage on the flight home. And even mid-range NYC hotels are awfully expensive. But New York is a wonderful place to visit, and there is a lot to see and do in terms of theater, museums, just walking, and so on. But I think I’d do a full-day shopping trip at whatever you think is your best local mall or shopping city, and then think of a NYC trip as icin on teh cake wher eyou might just go for extras and tourist experience.</p>
<p>thoughts from the DD trenches. your trip is my idea of a weekend of torture, rolling eyes and high prices but then I despise shopping. unless all the moms going are very sure ahead of time on price range, you could end up pressured to go way up in price, let her have a dress you think is a poor choice etc. (omg that dress is sooooo cute on you, when actually it is a popular design and a poor choice for the kid’s looks/coloring etc)
I’d consider “shopping” online first. David’s, Bloomingdales, etc and also just favorite dress makers sites for what’s around before going off into the wide world. Play with fabrics and lights with her too, ala that “what season are you” silliness, so she can see when there are not friends along what colors will set off her looks, what could be a poor choice. If she sees a dress online that is two small scarves wrapped around her umm cleavage and you are horrified you can have the discussion before you are there in person.
Unless you are so upscale you want to pay big bucks for a private label you won’t find anything much that is not at the nearest mall. Short Hills when the sales are on is tops!
My dd1 got a short dress from Shelly/Laundry which she still can wear -gorgeous with a lovely flow. dd2 got a slinky/sexy green number (5’8" very pale blonde) for a VERY low price at Macy’s after we’d looked at a zillion higher priced dresses but this was best for her, set off her own good looks rather than the dress being the star. I am not sure if at that age my girls could have withstood peer pressure over brand names if friends were along.</p>
<p>Rachacha, unless you have tons of disposable income waiting to be spent, I’d skip such a pricey undertaking for prom dresses. I live 10 miles from NYC, and know that there are hundreds of dresses at local malls & shops that are just as wonderful as what Manhattan has to offer. Don’t get me wrong…Manhattan is a great experience, but I think the pressure to find the “perfect” dress would taint the trip. If you want to head in to take in a show, or sightsee, and just schedule some dress browsing into the mix, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>Perhaps I am cheap, but D wanted a dress for her sophomore semi coming up in March. I told her to find something that would work for her voice recital, too. (That’s tonight, by the way.) She also was invited to the junior prom in our town h.s. So the half-price BCBG that I paid $150 for will work out to $50 an event. (Plus dry cleaning, of course.) It’s a tea length, so she can use it for other performing events, too. Did I mention that I was cheap? For last year’s recital she found a lovely gown on the clearance rack of a local shop for $36.</p>
<p>Girls in our area make the trip to NYC for dresses because, heaven forbid, someone else has the same dress…You will pay more, and still risk that someone else will have the same dress (by making a trip to NYC) ;)</p>
<p>My daughter is pretty frugal - she went to three formals in h.s. and found lovely dresses that were inexpensive for all three. For 10th and 11th grade, her dresses came from Penney’s and Sears and were less than $100 (I would have gladly taken her to other stores and paid more, within reason, but she happened to see these dresses which were beautiful and perfect for her figure (which is kind of a hard one to fit properly) and coloring.) For the senior prom, we went to a local prom dress store, and found a beautiful dress for less than $200. I don’t think it’s necessary to go to New York City to find a lovely dress, and it might be more fun to take the girls on a trip to New York City to do other things than shop.</p>
<p>I have gotten nearly all of my D’s prom and Holly Ball dresses for under $50.00 (with six kids, we are sale shoppers extraordinaire!). My D’s prom dress for this year was a $400.00 dress that we got for $100.00. I recently bought two short, fancy dresses, one for my D and one for my son’s gf. They are GORGEOUS and fit both girls like gloves. Get this: the total cost for <strong><em>BOTH</em></strong> dresses together? $6.25!!! BRAND NEW with tags from the mall!!! One was $2.25 and the other was $4.00!!! :)</p>
<p>We live within two hours of NYC and that idea never crossed my mind when my daughter was in HS. Most likely because there’s no way I could justify spending more money for something available locally. There are a couple of dress shops besides the mall stores that the girls go to. My daughters problem was her size. At 5’ she had to try on alot of dresses to get the right one. I can’t imagine going through that with multiple girls at multiple stores AND paying more for the privilege of doing so. There’s going to be one or more girls that ends up disappointed. I like the idea of making a day of it in the city, maybe seeing a play and planning a stop at one unique dress store to have fun trying some dresses on.</p>
<p>ok, berurah, cough up the store name, location and other shopping tips for the masses.<br>
DD1 is the world’s best shopper, followed by DD2. DD1 never pays retail, knows the brands/sales and knows quality. She occasionally will spring for something higher priced if it will retain it’s value over time, and not go out of style. little B.D. for performances, winter coat.
The one fatal flaw, which she shares with my sister “imelda” is a need for fancy shoes. ewww. I own a pair of sneakers and two pairs of sandals. It must be a gene that skipped me.</p>
<p>We were at Macy’s on 34th Street in Manhattan in August, and the Junior department has an enormous selection of prom dresses (thousands – I’ve never seen so much glitter, satin and sequins in one place ever). The salesperson told me the selection grows exponentially in winter/spring for prom season. Almost all the ones we looked at came in well under $100. You probably get what you pay for – but for my daughter, a dress she’ll wear once or twice, in a dark room, is not worth spending hundreds of dollars. But then, she rarely wears makeup and never wears jewelry and is frugal about clothes. And girls wear a wide range of clothes to her prom, from floor length to casual mini sundresses.</p>
<p>We bought a bunch of dresses, and ended up returning all but one to our local Macy’s (a nice option – we had six months to make the return). Then we found a beautiful, knee-length dress at a local merchant, half-price, for $58. My daughter is extremely hard to fit, so I was beyond thrilled.</p>
<p>However, I do dread the process of convincing her that she shouldn’t wear her Birks to the prom, and then finding the right pair of shoes.</p>
<p>What great responses, and so quick - thank you all!! You have given me some ideas that I would have never thought of. I figured that if I go the online route I will probably spend what I save on alterations, since my D is tiny, just like Kathie’s - just a whisker over 5 feet.</p>
<p>I am curious - what is the current trend as far as dress length anyway? Is it all over the place? Or is it trending toward longer styles?</p>
<p>I think a weekend away with some good friends and having prom shopping thrown in is a wonderful idea. This may be one of the last times these girls and moms can be together like that</p>
<p>It isn’t ALL about the dress</p>
<p>What I would do is say, okay, up early, shop until 1 or 2 then site see, best of both worlds</p>
<p>You’re right. I certainly missed the point. To me, talking about getting a cheap dress locally is like talking about how to avoid the 9th circle of Hell.</p>
<p>My Ds dress in below the knee, and very marilyn monroe…she doesn’t do floor length…and it is TIGHT at the waist…my D is 5 1 and that length looks good on her…</p>
<p>bows are in from what I saw, but bows that are part of the dress,not added on</p>
<p>Look at ABS online and see if they have any stand alone stores in the area you want to visit. They copy quite quickly all the expensive designers. They are still in the 200-400 range but they have a great sales rack.
I was just at a Dr’s office catching up on my magazine reading while waiting for my son and in one of the magazines it had pictures of famous womaen in a designer gown and then a picture of the ABS copy that will be out in April. Can’t remember what magazine it was. It probably was US or People.</p>
<p>It sounds fun, since my mom hates shopping =(. All my dresses have been bought when I’m with friends, but she never has problems with my purchases since I’m modest and a bargain shopper.</p>
<p>8th grade graduation/9th grade homecoming: red dress- $50 Macy<em>s
10th homecoming- $50 (pink dress)-Macy</em>s
11th Homcoming/graduation ceremony/NHS inductions- $60 Macy*s
11th Prom- turquoise dress, $23 Forever XXI
12th Homecoming- White dress (think engagement scene in The Notebook)- $ 78, I actually bought this in NYC when I was there this summer after looking for such a dress for 2 years! at MEXX? I think that was it.
12th Prom- I bought my dress on ebay from Hong Kong (The shipping was more than the dress), I know this seems SO weird, but the dress is gorgeous. $100 including s/h, floor-length ball gown. How can you expect to get something like that in the US? Burgundy with gold accents, I love it. It makes me a princess =). Which is fortunate, since prom is on my 18th bday =). </p>
<p>If you want a girls weekend, that sounds like fun. Of course, trying on clothes always sounds fun to me, even if I don’t end up buying them. There are bargains out there, you don’t need to spend loads of $$ to get a gorgeous dress, I always get compliments on mine even though before this year I didn’t spend over $50/60.</p>
<p>My D just went to winter formal & I didn’t see a single long dress- Ithink it depends on your area
she didn’t even wear a “dress up dress”
but a cotton halter from American Apparel.
I suggested to her, that a formal meant that some kids would get a little more dressed up- but she says" I am wearing a * dress, for me this is dressed up*" !</p>
<p>Lucky for her she has a models build and looks so she is able to get away with anything- but I also was glad to see that she didn’t expect to find a Versace lookalike</p>
<p>I think its fine if moms and daughters want to have a weekend away- but the stress of shopping, of finding things that will work for each girl, sounds enormously stressful and not fun-
My d does most of her shopping online- or on the Ave with her friends, the few times I have to take her to get something, it takes twice as long as I planned and many concessions have to be made.
ugh
( oh but Jcrew has some beautiful dresses-they seem to run a bit big and most of the sale things are gone- but might still be worth a look)</p>
