The chaotic crowd is a circus of shrewd comments, jealous glances and indecisiveness.
It’s Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and about 40 young women and family members squirm their way through a labyrinth of sparkly gowns and dresses at Pzaz, a Centereach prom emporium. A line of chattering teenage girls and their mothers wrap around the far end of the store as they wait for their numbers to be called for one of the nine dressing rooms. Like a deli counter, except — as far as the shoppers are concerned — far more glamorous.
Each young woman clutches a pile of dresses like her life depends on it and glances around nervously at other teenagers to ensure they aren’t hugging the same ones.
“Isn’t that the one you liked?” says one mother to her daughter as she points to a young woman with flowing black hair who is trying on a peacock print gown. “Didn’t you originally want to try that one on?”
“Ugh, no, never,” the daughter replies in disgust. “I hate the way the side of the dress fringes like that.”
“But I thought you liked it?”
“Not anymore.”
One petite teenager with long sandy blonde hair has an entourage of family members, including parents, an aunt, grandparents and a sister. All of them crowd outside the dressing rooms with the same suspense as if it were the bottom of the ninth inning at a Subway Series.
The young woman comes out of the dressing room with a banana yellow low-cut dress with glittery bands wrapping around her torso.
“Oh, wow!” family members cheer and yelp.
“I LOVE this one,” she says with a raspy voice as she smoothes the sides of the dress.
“Oh my Gawd,” a store employee with a Queens accent chimes in. “With a body like that, everything looks good on her. This is gawgeous! Everything she puts on is just gawgeous!”
The teenager smiles as she spins around on a raised block in front of a three-piece mirror. It is the fourth dress she tried on but the only one she likes.
“Oh, the whole crowd is looking at you, Lindsay!” the grandmother says.
But members of the crowd are completely in their own world.
A young African-American woman stands giggling in the corner clutching the loose fabric of a blinding lime green gown.
“Excuse me!” her mother says in a loud voice. “You look pretty!”
“Mom, she thinks she has a stomach!” says the teenager’s sister while forming quotations in the air with her hands to accentuate the sarcasm.
“Oh, please!” the mother says. “It would look better if you didn’t have that bright pink bra on underneath, though.” All three women laugh.
A tall smiling brunette admires her dress in a mirror next to the young woman in lime green. She seems genuinely happy until another shopper interjects.
“You look pregnant.”
“Ugh!” the brunette says in disbelief. “Gee, thanks, I’ll work on that.”
“No, no,” says a third woman in a softer tone, while touching the brunette’s arm to comfort her. “The dress is just flowing, you know? It’s not that classy. It’s really not that classy.”
The ridiculed teenager returns to her dressing room.
Meanwhile, Lindsay in banana yellow beams with satisfaction. And so does the rest of the family.
Lindsay looks down at herself grinning. Her excitement immediately turns into a frown as she notices that one of the beads on the front of the gown is missing.
“Oh, nooooo!” she whines.
“What?!” says her grandfather who is squinting from a couch three feet away. “Is it a stain?”
“It’s just a loose bead,” interrupts a store owner. “We can fix it at no cost. But now she’s going to need some shoes.” And she ushers the mother over to the shoe section as the rest of the family continues to admire the again-smiling Lindsay and her gown. Mission accomplished.
But for Lindsay and other prom-goers, the mission doesn’t end with the perfect dress. It is an adventure that continues with finding the perfect date, the perfect after prom plans, the perfect limo deals, and the perfect group of friends who are willing to cooperate and make it all happen — preferably, without the drama.
Teresa Nicole Moser feels relieved. On her fourth shopping spree, the Smithtown High School East senior finally landed the perfect prom dress: a replica of the beaded chiffon Faviana that Eva Longoria wore to the 2007 Golden Globes. Exactly the same, except in white.
“When I tried it on, I was like, oh my gosh it’s so nice!” the 17-year-old enthuses. “I liked how it was really tight and I looked skinny.”
Just days after she purchased the dress, she discovered that a girl from her school had bought the same one in pink. So, she decided to do the honor of creating a Facebook group designated for seniors to post pictures of their prom dresses so that no one buys the same one.
“I figured I’d let her know that we have the same dress because I wasn’t going to change mine,” Teresa says. “Besides, it looks uglier in pink. And I also feel a little threatened, like, what if it looks better on her?”
The group, which has now ballooned to 124 members, is home to an array of prom dress photos, some even taken with cell phones inside dressing rooms. The young women type comments below each photo, most of which are exploding with positive praise and exclamation points.
But now Teresa’s biggest concern is not the $368 she must lay out for her breathtaking gown — “It’s not that much,” she says, because a friend of hers paid $600 — but finding a date to escort her to her prom at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead.
Teresa has been going on dates with various classmates to seek a potential prom date, rapidly weeding out the ones who seem “too weird.” She really thought she’d hit it off with one young man until things went sour without any explanation.
“Now he’s being weird!” says Teresa. “He’s not talking to me much anymore, and I don’t know. I’m trying to give boys more chances because I don’t want to be left alone for prom.”
Even the young men are feeling the pressure. College freshman Brian Farkas created the Facebook group “Tyler Thomas Anthony Taormina III Needs a Prom Date” to help one of his best buddies of four years find a lady to latch arms with at the Smithtown High School West prom. “Tyler is a Sagittarius with hazel eyes, 5’9 and a wild imagination,” Brian wrote in the description section of the group.
“I don’t think Tyler will find a date through this group because of his standards and the fact that his social interactions overshadow the Web,” Brian explains. “Even though it did start as a joke, at the same time it might open up something, which would be awesome.”
Tyler, on the other hand finds the group embarrassing. “I hope people take this group as a joke and don’t think I had any part in making it,” the young man says with a laugh.
Tyler has more important things to focus on, like how to budget his money. He’s uneasy about splurging on a limo because he knows the group won’t spend that much time in it and he’s opposed to his friends’ suggestions to have professional pictures taken.
“I think that it’s ridiculous,” Tyler says. “And of all the times I will look back on these years, I am sure that prom will be the least eventful and memorable.”
Commack High School senior Nicole Cohen is also concerned with budgeting. She spent five hours shopping for the perfect dress last Sunday, put several on hold, but still isn’t sure which ones are worth the money. And after purchasing a dress, she must also be able to afford transportation and a two-night stay at Baywatch Motel and Marina in the Hamptons — the place where she and nearly 70 other seniors will be staying after prom.
“For me, the biggest problem is finding the money,” Nicole says. “With the economy doing so poorly, it seems that most kids are responsible for finding the money on their own.”
And stores are trying to cope with this reality as well. Many have been advertising sales and priding themselves on the idea of a “one s
top shop” where girls can purchase the dress, shoes, jewelry, handbags and get alterations to the dress all under the same roof.
“Sales have been a little softer this year than the last year,” says Frank, a store owner of Pzaz who would not give his last name. “I do a lot of promos though, like direct mailing coupons.”
Flair, a boutique in Stony Brook Village where dresses range from $300 to $900, has advertised incentives as well. A few weeks ago, free earrings were being offered with the purchase of a dress and the store is now offering 20 percent discounts on dresses. According to the store owner, Hasmik Buzzetta, sales this year are “pretty compatible” to last year.
Cut out dresses and animal print dresses are selling well right now, Buzzetta explains with a grin. She also points to a Sherri Hill gown that looks like a piece of painted artwork. “This dress is very popular too,” she adds.
Jessica Both, a senior at Smithtown High School East, purchased a Jovani dress from Flair for more than $600 for her prom. For her, it was Hasmik’s helpful attitude and the quality of the dresses that ultimately sold her.
“I decided to go to Flair rather than Estelle’s or Pzaz because these dresses are a lot more conservative and elegant,” Jessica said. “Even though it was a little expensive, it was well worth the money.”
On the other end of the spectrum, non-profit organizations like Operation Fairy Dust Project in New York City have teamed up to provide financially-challenged high school girls with prom dresses and various accessories that they otherwise could not afford. The organization could not be reached for comment.
But even those who’ve splurged on dresses have been finding small ways to budget themselves. Teresa is wearing the same shoes she wore to her junior prom and getting her hair done for a 20 percent discount at a salon where a friend works. Still, Teresa vows to spend at least $50 for acrylic tips on her nails because she “doesn’t like” her “real nails” and at least $40 at the tanning salon.
“All of the girls spend way too much time and effort into getting ready with their clothes and appearance in every way possible,” Tyler says. “By the time they start dancing it all gets undone anyway.”
And most girls say they won’t even wear the dress again or that they’d cut it and refashion it for more casual wear. But this is senior prom and it only happens once in a lifetime. For many young women, it is a rite of passage, a conclusion to a chapter in their lives and the beginning of a new one.
“It’s an excuse for you to get all dressed up and pretty,” Teresa says. “I love being all dressed up and getting my hair done, and now I have an excuse to spend all this money on it.”
