Elaborately coiffed heads are popping out of stretch limos all over town: It must be prom season again! Here, five New York girls explain it all.
Saranna Belgrave
Brooklyn Tech High School, The New York Hilton, June 8
The date: “I’m going with my boyfriend, Richard; we’ve been going out for a year and five months. I think he’s more excited for the prom than I am! We picked out his tux together, and we just went shopping for his shoes.”
The dress: “The thing about my dress was, I wanted to be different, but I didn’t want to look weird. So my mom took me to the place where my cousin got her prom dress and as soon as I walked in, I saw it. My dress. My favorite color. It’s a great blue, a really great blue. I saw it, I tried it on, and it was like magic. I fell in love.”
Robin Kachka
Stuyvesant High School, Waldorf Astoria, June 9
The date: “I met him in Cancún on spring break. He goes to Hofstra University. We went out two Saturdays ago and I turned to him and said with my best puppy-dog face, “You know, I don’t have a date to the prom yet.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll go with you.”
The dress: “The dress was the first one I tried on. I found it at Bebesh on West Broadway. I fell in love with it right away even though it didn’t fit me perfectly and it was about twice the amount my mom and I planned on spending. So I kept looking. I found a great dress in Loehman’s for $50, so I bought it. But I wasn’t sure. My dad came into Bebesh with me, and after I tried it on he said, “We’re getting it.” The service in Bebesh was so awesome. I had two salespeople running in circles around me. I like the open back because my back is one of the few parts of my body that I feel completely comfortable showing off.”
Nicole Wyatt and Daniella Gruenspecht
The Garden School, Jackson Heights, doesn’t have a “normal prom.” The seniors start with dinner, then spend the next 24 hours partying at a comedy club, a dance club, a party on a boat, and then spend the next day at Great Adventure.
On sharing a date: “P.J. is my boyfriend of nine months, and Nicole is my best friend, and we all love each other!” Daniella explains. “There were lots of guys who wanted to take Nicole, but she didn’t like any of them. Plus, I thought it would be cute for P.J.”
The dresses: “I wanted a gold dress like Julia Stiles wore to some awards ceremony, but that was impossible. This one had straps and all sorts of stuff, but I had them alter it. My mom says it looks good with my eyes,” says Nicole. “I never thought I’d wear sequins to prom!” Daniella says. “But it has a little train, which is nice. It looks like what I would wear if I were walking down the red carpet.”
Elia Monte-Brown
Hunter College High School, Windows on the World, May 24
The date: “I’m going with an ex-boyfriend, I guess. We just broke up. But hopefully we’ll be back together by prom.”
The dress: “I wanted something slightly different. I went to Macy’s and Lord & Taylor and everything like that, but I didn’t like anything. So I went to Religious Sex on St. Marks Place and got a corset, which is a lot of fun. You can distort your body! The skirt is the classic-prom-dress part. It’s a nice contrast, I think. I wanted to lighten things up because I’m a pretty outgoing person.”