By Toni Guagenti
Published: April 1, 2008
Print
Email
Gowns and tuxes. Limos and fancy cars. Friends and significant others. Prom season has arrived in Hampton Roads and with it for teenagers a rite of passage that’s been around for decades. Face it. Your parents probably went, and their parents and their parents before them. But it hasn’t always been the sophisticated, expensive soiree it is today. From costly dresses and tuxedos to elaborate hairdos and parties, prom in the 21st century can often be about the show. Take corsages. Nowadays a simple rose or a wrist wrapper won’t do. "It’s gotten more elaborate," said Victor Kirkland, a designer with Amaryllis Floral Design Studio off Laskin Road in Virginia Beach."They come with little flashing lights, little pearls that dangle." Teens are even wearing their corsages like Cleopatra wore jewelry - on the upper arm, "over the muscle line," Kirkland explains. For Cassandra Hamer, a mother of four in Virginia Beach, prom in 1980 at Fort Stewart Army Base outside Savannah, Ga., was more "laid back." There was no limo, Hamer remembers, and her date, "a friend of mine," borrowed his parents car for the evening. The couple went to dinner off base and then back to the officer’s club for the dance. Hamer was home by midnight. "My dad was strict; he didn’t play." According to wiki.answers.com, prom after the 1980s became more lavish and expensive for party goers. Boys started renting expensive tuxedos and girls buying designer gowns, the site says, with stretch limos being hired "to drive the prom-goers to expensive restaurants or discos for an all-night extravaganza ..." Some of these parties are sponsored by public school systems, such as Chesapeake, to keep kids safe and engaged. Cavalier Ford even gives away a car to one person (out of the system’s seven high schools) who stays all night at the event, according to Tom Cupitt, Chesapeake Public Schools spokesman.
As for the term "prom," About.com says it comes from the late 19th century "promenade ball." In the early 1900s, prom was a simple tea dance for seniors, the site says. As the decades passed, musical interests evolved, fashions changed and prom played more and more a part of coming-of-age for high schoolers heading into the adult world after graduation. A huge part of the prom equation is getting the right look. Sarafina Hamer, Cassandra Hamer’s youngest daughter, plans to have her dress made, ensuring she gets the right color and style, for Salem High School’s senior prom in June. Eileen Savage, owner of Eileen Originals in Kempsville, used to make custom dresses, but over the past 12 years, she’s been in the formalwear business in Virginia Beach with husband Ben. She’s seen fashions come and go and come again. "I think the girls in this area are a little more sedate in what they wear," unlike New York or California, says Savage, whose prom in 1961 included a trip to the Long Island Sound after the dance. "It seems you have a season which is in the spring, and girls will wear certain styles in certain parts of the country; the following year Virginia catches up." One season Savage stocked up on ballroom-type gowns with full skirts and most sat on the racks. The next year, girls in Virginia wanted that style. Sequins appear to be out this year, Savage said, and the slinky Chartreuse dresses are in. "Nowadays, you run the gamut" of dresses, she said. "It’s really an open market when it comes to style." As for the guys, the styles are traditional, minus the puffy chest and wrists that Cassandra Hamer’s date wore, but the vests and ties are more daring when it comes to color. The formalwear companies are starting "to do more of the vibrant colors that the dresses are made of," Savage says. The guys "also have more choices than they used to," from chocolate tuxedos to Nehru collars.
It’s the same with the flowers. "The girl wants to match the boy," Kirkland says. "About half the orders (Amaryllis has) are some kind of odd request." Regardless of the expense or the custom orders and the all-night extravaganzas, prom still is still a rite of passage for young adults. Sarafina, 18, won’t be able to stay out all night when she attends Salem High School’s senior prom in June, but she will get to experience a first-rate first prom, which includes celebrating at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach and going with a lot of friends even if she goes with a date. "It’s good to see her get dressed up and get excited about prom," mother says of daughter. "She’s never gone to one; this will be nice."
Cassandra Hamer’s advice for her daughter on prom night: "It’s a culmination of high school," she says, so Sarafina should "have a good time and take lots of pictures and create good memories." Dress-maker Savage agrees: "It’s something that kids look forward to; they get excited about it - it’s not too often you get a chance to dress up. "It’s a good American tradition that has held."
