Prom Dress Shopping Season Begins Across the UK
As prom season arrives, dress shops nationwide are busy with teenagers searching for the ideal outfit for their school prom. The question arises: how much should families realistically spend? The BBC interviewed several prom attendees, some of whom spent hundreds on their dresses, while others were content finding bargains.
A variety of regal colours, rhinestones, sequins, sparkles, and diamante fabrics catch the eye of shoppers entering a store in Goole, East Yorkshire.
Approximately 70 extravagant dresses and tailored suits are displayed on rails, ready for this year’s prom season.
Store manager Amy Raggett presents one of the dresses: a black gown adorned with delicate embellishments.
However, the price tag may surprise some. At just £12.95, this prom dress costs a fraction of the prices seen at some local boutiques, where outfits can exceed £1,000.
This is a charity shop operated by Dove House, a hospice based in Hull. Staff have been collecting and storing "new but used" dresses in preparation for the prom season, which has now arrived.
"Prom dresses nowadays are just so expensive, hundreds sometimes thousands of pounds,"
Amy says, running her fingers along the rail.
"Prom is just one day. It's one day of your childhood life, and these dresses give families another option.
"I know I wouldn't fit in my prom dress that I wore 15 years ago,"
she adds with a laugh.
The Rise of Prom Culture in the UK
Proms have traditionally been an American rite of passage marking the end of school. Until a few decades ago, their influence in the UK was mostly seen in films such as Grease, Mean Girls, and High School Musical.
Currently, the British Council, a public organization promoting international educational opportunities, estimates that approximately 85% of secondary schools in the UK hold proms.
Social media platforms are filled with teenage influencers, some boasting millions of followers, sharing videos that depict a glamorous vision of prom nights, featuring expensive dresses, elaborate hairstyles and makeup, and rented limousines or sports cars.
Personal Experiences: High Costs and Memorable Moments
In Scunthorpe, 18-year-old college student Scarlett Robinson shares her positive prom experience.
"It's fun, you get to go see all your mates and make memories. It's the last day of school.
"My dress alone was £800,"
she adds. "Very expensive, but worth it."
Scarlett admits she has not worn the dress since that day; it remains hanging in her wardrobe.
Leandro Martins Dos Santos, also 18, notes that many of his friends spent large sums on their prom attire, but his own expenditure was modest.
"One girl spent a grand and a half on her dress and rented out a car,"
he says. "I just didn't see the point of spending a lot of money on a suit I was only going to wear for a day."
Sophie Simpson, 18, from Barton-upon-Humber, mentions that she tries on her dress each year to check if it still fits since her Year 11 prom.
"Overall, prom cost me about £200, so not much really,"
she says. "It was a great experience. I would definitely recommend it to anyone."
Changes in Prom Dress Retail and Pricing
Wendy Ashton, who owns a dress shop in Scunthorpe, remarks that proms have "changed enormously" over the past two decades.
"I think it's everybody's greatest fear, turning up to an event and somebody having the same outfit,"
she explains. "We keep a really, really strict register."
Wendy maintains "prom books" and enforces a policy of stocking only one of each dress per school.
Upstairs in her shop, dozens of dresses are covered in plastic wraps. Popular colours this year include yellow, baby pink, and blue.
The most expensive dress is priced at £899, according to the store’s website. However, Wendy also offers a selection of "more affordable" dresses starting at about £100. Last year, she donated approximately 60 outfits to schools to support disadvantaged students.
"I think we've had to be more mindful of how circumstances have changed, particularly of late.
"We try and have a good price range here, starting from lower price points right up to the people who are happy to pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds for their dress.
"A couple of our designers have brought out lower-priced collections this year."
Similar pricing trends are observed at other dress shops in the region. For example, Red Carpet Ready near Lincoln lists outfits ranging from £50 to £1,450 on its website.
Charity Shop Offers Affordable Prom Dress Options
Back at the Dove House shop in Goole, Amy notes that many of the dresses in stock have likely been worn only once.
She hopes that by selling these dresses, the shop can alleviate "a big pressure" on families who might otherwise find prom dresses unaffordable.
"For the sake of just a day, when you could be spending £25 or £30, why would you want to spend hundreds?
"You could definitely have a ball in these dresses."
For more, listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire or Lincolnshire on , or watch the latest episode of Look North.
Download the app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices.
