(reprinted from the Chicago Sun-Times, March 30, 2009 – Paige Wiser)
There are many things that can ruin prom night — rain, a curfew, bad dancing — and the recession certainly doesn’t help.
Kayla Day, an 18-year-old senior at Riverside-Brookfield High School, found out three weeks ago that her mom lost her job at a non-profit agency. To say the least, it puts a damper on the big dance. “I’m still doing everything,” she says, from hair to manicure to accessories, “but I’m looking for the cheapest way to get everything.”
Luckily, Kayla still has her part-time job as a restaurant hostess to help fund tickets to the dance. Even better, she found her dream dress at a fashion show and silent auction hosted by Paul Mitchell The School, 1225 S. Halsted, where students donated their “gently used” dresses. And Kayla paid just $55.
“It was a little miracle,” says Kayla’s mom Cheryl. Kayla wanted hot pink, and she found hot pink, with plenty of tulle. “I’m a single mom, trying to get Kayla through school and hold onto this house as long as I can,” says Cheryl. At least Kayla won’t have to worry about limo costs. Students will take the bus to prom, which is being held on a cruise ship downtown. It would be even cheaper to have the prom in the high school gym, but the deposit for the location was due more than a year ago.
Chris Sweda/Sun-Times
Pre-recession, a Seventeen magazine survey found that girls spent an average of nearly $800 on prom activities. “A lot of kids are thinking that it’s really expensive,” says Chrisse Neal, the faculty prom coordinator at Kenwood Academy, 5015 S. Blackstone. “And parents as well. In the next three months they have to turn around and send them to college.”
They’re still having their big night at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker, and tickets are still typically priced at $95 each. But she does see students cutting back. Rather than each couple springing for a limo, five to six kids now share the ride. Students who aren’t dating anyone special are saving the cost of a ticket by going to the dance solo, or in a group of friends.
And a dress is an easy way to skimp with style. Even Nordstrom sells prom dresses starting at $58. But savvy students are taking advantage of the recycled-dress movement, through organizations such as Cinderella’s Closet and the Glass Slipper Project. “I think a lot of the young girls will be taking advantage of the Glass Slipper Project,” says Neal. (The next “prom boutique date” for Glass Slipper is April 18 at Vernon Johns School, 6936 S. Hermitage.)
In Steger, three sisters who graduated from Bloom Trail High School organized their own “boutique” with donated dresses and menswear. There are other ways, too. Jones College Prep, 606 S. State, points students to the Barbara Bates Foundation. It was created by the Chicago-based designer, who was a teen mother but graduated from Marshall High School in 1972. She provides custom prom dresses to underprivileged or hard-to-fit young women, as well as formalwear for deserving young men.
Audrey Butterfuss is seeing more prom traffic at her high-end consignment shop My Favorite Things, 12 W. 63rd St. in Westmont. Most of the prom dresses there are no older than three years old, and go for $69-$110. “Yesterday we sold an absolute princess dress that would normally be $500,” says Butterfuss. “It had layers and layers of bouffant lace. We sold it for $150.”
Other promgoers are having luck on craigslist.org and eBay.com, and one student newspaper recommended that girls “sample” makeup at cosmetics stores. “Have them do your makeup and buy a $10 lip gloss in return,” advised one student in the Lane Tech Warrior.
The recession will really hit proms next year, predicts Shep Moyle, president of Stumps Inc., which supplies prom paraphernalia like favors. Schools started holding their proms in more exotic locations in the early ’90s, he says, like upscale hotels, botanical gardens, and the tops of skyscrapers. But next year, he estimates that 75 percent of schools will return to campus for prom.
“Schools and the students know that this is a very special event in their high school career, but they also know that times are tough and finding a way to stretch their dollar is even more important now than ever,” Moyle says.
