The $1000 Prom Night

From Thursday's NY Times Online.

Apparently the prom-wear business is recession proof:

Families living in parts of the nation that have been hardest hit by the recession are still spending whatever they can to make sure their teenagers make it to prom. That means that gown and formalwear shops from Florida to California are thriving even in areas where customers have been directly affected by the housing collapse and the banking slowdown.

“Yes we are in a recession and we’re in a bad recession,” said Georgette Diaz, owner of Georgette’s in Tampa, Fla. “But they’re going to forgo other things to make sure their daughter goes to prom.”

Even in a state battered by the real estate slowdown, Ms. Diaz said, families are still spending $250 to $300 for gowns. She hung a framed sign on her shop door offering teenagers the opportunity to help earn their gowns by helping out at the store on Saturdays leading up to prom, and a few girls took advantage of the offer. But for the most part, she said, their families are paying for gowns.

While shoppers at Cardita Formalwear in Port St. Lucie may delay their prom purchases, boys are spending even more this year on tuxes, according to the shop’s owner, Clifford Pearl. He said teenage boys were spending $150 to $160 for designer brands, though they typically spent about $120 to $135 last year.

Mr. Pearl said about 80 percent of his teenage customers tell him, “I want to go all out.”

Even in Southern California where many mortgage banking jobs were concentrated, girls are buying gowns “like there’s no tomorrow,” according to Suzanne Aguila, owner of Carraz Gowns in Glendale and Torrance. Ms. Aguila said they are still spending what they did last year, $300 to $500.

Maybe it's that I went to a small Christian high-school where dancing was verboten, maybe it's that I grew up  wearing mostly hand-me-downs, or maybe I'm just square, but I've never understood the insane amounts of money parents spend on their high-schoolers' proms.  Last I knew, prom tickets were going for $50 to $100-plus each. Then there are the $150-$200 tuxes, $300-plus dresses, limos, flowers, hair, after-parties, hotel rooms, and various other accoutrements. 

I remember a high-school friend making her own prom dress, which I thought was just about the coolest thing in the world. (I seem to recall her looking fantastic, too.) For my senior prom (a banquet actually, sans dancing), I wore a suit and tie that I already owned, and bought a pair of black dress shoes for $20 at Payless.  I drove my mom's station wagon, and bought my date a dozen roses at Wegmans for about $10. The tickets were $30.

Are we really in the age of the $1000 prom night? Really? I mean really, a thousand-dollar night out in high school? Hell, I can hardly remember my last $100 night out. Please, someone explain this to me.