May 29, 2001

10:50 AM

Prom dresses getting skimpier(NB: New York Times link). I have to believe that Principal Matakovich would have made prom night a quick roundtrip home for any girl who showed up at the San Luis Obispo High School prom dressed in one of these ... (although one hesitates to use Size 2 Spence girls as a firm sign of a trend).
posted by MattD (23 comments total)

Is that girl in the top picture is as pregnant as she looks? If so, I'm surprised she's let out of the house at all...
posted by mimi at 11:15 AM on May 29, 2001

Is there a mirror? I can't see the picture at all, even with the back door.
posted by starvingartist at 11:30 AM on May 29, 2001

Mimi: I think that the mirror image is showing the thrust of her hips, rather than belly, but you might be right, as well.

By the way, for non-New Yorkers: Spence is a Manhattan girls-only private school for (mostly) the daughters of the fabulously wealthy and the media-cultural elite

I was acquainted with a Spence alumna whose parents were, respectively, a partner at a major law firm and a very successful doctor -- she talked with only partial irony about how her self-esteem still suffers from "growing up poor."
posted by MattD at 11:31 AM on May 29, 2001

I posted it as a "www.nytimes.com" link which still works fine. MeFi must parse it into the "channel.nytimes.com" automatically.

Here's the link again.

Just in case the work around is automatic in comments, too, here's the link in plain text to copy and paste into your address bar: www.nytimes.com/2001/05/29/living/29PROM.html
posted by MattD at 11:40 AM on May 29, 2001

Yeah, that's what I was thinking at first, but the non-mirror angle looks more than telling as well. Maybe the dress is just really, really unflattering. What happened at San Luis Obispo?
posted by mimi at 11:48 AM on May 29, 2001

Ouch! "www" stays "www" in previewed links and plain tests but switches to "channel" in post instances.

So just manually delete "channel" and insert "www" and (assuming you're registered) you're good to go.

Maybe the channel backdoor is closed?
posted by MattD at 11:54 AM on May 29, 2001

seems that way
posted by starvingartist at 12:01 PM on May 29, 2001

I read this as "Porn dresses getting skimpier," which was confusing.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:08 PM on May 29, 2001

Spence is not a Manhattan all-girls private school. It is the Manhattan all-girls private school. If you can't get in there, you go somewhere lesser. (Pipe down, you Chapinites.) And yes, most of the girls are fabulously wealthy and fabulously fucked up in one way or another. (Not because of the school; because of neglectful parenting.) But not all are; the best friend I ever had was a Spence girl. And probably the smartest, too.

And they sure aren't all size 2.

That said, the photos don't seem to back up the article. These dresses don't seem any more skimpy than the ones worn by girls in my high school days (1985-88). I don't see any J-Hos here.

(I do think that girl's pregnant, and God, how does she manage to stand up with ankles so thin?)
posted by aaron at 12:19 PM on May 29, 2001

These dresses are skimpy? They're nothing compared to what these girls wear in the nightclubs (ahem...)
posted by fooljay at 12:22 PM on May 29, 2001

I'm not so sure they'd be able to wear something as "shocking" as that in Cincinnati, where kids still aren't allowed to dance dirty.

In order to attend a dance at Walnut Hills High School in Evanston, students must sign pledges that they will not dress provocatively or engage in lewd dancing. Their parents must sign, too.

“Grinding, bumping, fondling, humping, licking, booty dancing, rolling, kicking, mashing, shoving, wallowing, disrobing, sexual kissing, freaking, jacking, and whatever a chaperone deems improper and/or indecent will not be permitted.”

Students who break the rules will be removed from the dance and assigned Friday School detention for the remainder of the year.
posted by keli at 12:30 PM on May 29, 2001

OK, I broke down and registered so I could see the article.

Those dresses are not that skimpy. I graduated high school in '94 and all my prom dates during those four years wore dresses just as revealing, if not more so.

And I for one do not think she's pregnant, I think it's just a weird trick of the mirror and the angle of the shot.
posted by starvingartist at 12:30 PM on May 29, 2001

From the photos they have, the prom dresses look nothing smaller than what bridesmaids wear in weddings, or fooljay pointed out, at clubs. What was ever wrong about a girl wanting to look and/or feel sexy, especially in their later teenage years when hormones are skyrocketing?

I have to admit, I broke down against my own free will and registered there. I shall go run myself into a wall not.
posted by GirlFriday at 12:36 PM on May 29, 2001

Sheesh. Slow news day? Private School Gets Snitty Over Naughty Girls!

Except that the dresses I saw weren't very naughty anyway. How weird.
posted by Skot at 12:49 PM on May 29, 2001

The odd thing to my mind is not the (un-)skimpy dresses, but the fact that at least one of those girls had a makeup artist and hairstylist fixing her up at home. That seems, um, excessive for prom.
posted by redfoxtail at 12:49 PM on May 29, 2001

I thought the dresses weren't that revealing, but BOY were they ugly. I am so sorry that the halter top look is back - I think it's pretty hideous, and lacking in style. Most of the dresses pictured were just plain unflattering for the girls. I think they could have found something a lot sexier to wear.
posted by doublehelix at 12:53 PM on May 29, 2001

Like, totally.
posted by greensweater at 1:01 PM on May 29, 2001

Maybe they iz the Icy Hot Stuntaz's bitch-ass hoes. Yo, that girl is Flame's #1 strippa, that's why Flame always be strapped to the damn cellie.
posted by ktheory at 1:47 PM on May 29, 2001

“Grinding, bumping, fondling, humping, licking, booty dancing, rolling, kicking, mashing, shoving, wallowing, disrobing, sexual kissing, freaking, jacking, and whatever a chaperone deems improper and/or indecent will not be permitted.”

Hey you kids! Take the freaking outside!!!

Geez, in my day we knew our place. It was the back seat of mom's Volvo, preferably on that dirt road that overlooks the resevoir.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 2:46 PM on May 29, 2001

SLO town in the house! hey mattd.
posted by FPN at 3:31 PM on May 29, 2001

redfox, I didn't find the dresses shocking either. What I do find disgusting is the longstanding trend toward really, really, really expensive prom spending, upwards of what once was considered a modest wedding. The dress or tux, the limo, the after-prom hotel room ... four figures is just a beginning.
posted by dhartung at 8:56 PM on May 29, 2001

that girl is not pregnant, that is her hip.

and I don't think those dresses are very skimpy at all. are those the dresses referenced in the article, or just some random dresses they chose?

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 9:03 PM on May 29, 2001

I didn't think those dresses were skimpy, just really, really ugly.
posted by dagnyscott at 7:06 AM on May 30, 2001