#with this black velvet skirt thrifted in 2014 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

smileymoth · 6 months ago

Note

Some random numbers for the oc's asks (answer with whoever you want)

5, 19, 27

FRANNYYYY thank you <3 i'll answer with college au etho and joel since i started to think about them for some reason rn because i kind of have a coherent storyline brewing (not really) and they're literally just my ocs at this point. i've hurt etho too much for him to be not an oc

note added later: FUCK IT GET BEAMED !!!!!! IM ADDING CLEO AND BDUBS BC I CAN!!!!

context: joel and etho are roommates, cleo and bdubs live together but arent dating . joel and bdubs are in architecture, etho is in comp. sci and cleo is a textile/fashion student in another school entirely.

5. how do they typically dress? does their wardrobe lean more towards practicality or aesthetics?

Etho: she's more practical than anything. I don't think he has shopped for new clothes in like, 2 years tho, if it fits it's whatever, if it doesn't have a hole its whatever... obvs she wears mostly black/white/greens/greys, maybe the occasional dark blue? i think he would benefit from some pink clothing. maybe Cleo can provide those. Cleo would absolutely give him some of her old clothing and tailor it to fit him or sth. like florals and stuff. <3 cute! I do want to say Etho dresses like a reject emo kid but without the band shirts since he feels insecure about wearing graphic things since he feels like it brings attention to him. :3 also BLACK RIPPED SKINNY JEANS are a given. also fuckass cargo shorts

Joel: imagine 2014 grunge tumblr. Purely Aesthetic. would wear an extra belt if he could be bothered. he probably has about 10 plaids. He LOVES green accents. He absolutely owns a pair of knock off Tripp Pants. I think he thrifts mostly. Probably stole from his fathers closet too. Too many band tshirts. 50% of them he's never listened to. But they look cool. He probably hates Guns n Roses but wears the Tee anyway bc it looks cool. Absolutely a recovering scene+emo (scenemo?) kid who is never recovering. Mostly wears sweats around the house, sometimes will just walk around in his underwear. Etho doesn't like it because he gets flustered but gets used to it after the first semester of living together.

Cleo: She's a textile student/tailor so she sows most of her clothes herself. She likes crop tops and blazers and flowy skirts with floral patterns. Most of her clothes are made with comfort AND aesthetic in mind since, yknow, she does make them herself so she can choose both. Honestly I feel like she would learn more toward earthy colours, not so much black, I'd say maybe more of the ''kinderwhore'' aesthetic??? Grungey??? Maybe??? Oh and you KNOW she's dressing herself in velvet for special occasions. She doesn't wear too many accessories, just a good pair of earrings and simple necklace. Maybe a choker.

Bdubs: bro has no style he's just out there in messy wrinkly clothing that he found from the ground he does NOT care at all. Somehow even Etho is more put together than he is. I think the most noticable item from his wardrobe is the pink hoodie bc obvs he has a pink hoodie. duhh. Yeah he just doesn't care.

19. are they quick to anger? what sets them off?

Etho: i don't think he can get angry really, more annoyed or irritated out of anxiety ......... mostly if plans change or someone forces him to do something he will get a bit nasty.

Joel: you can piss this guy off with nearly everything. You can place the mug 1 inch too close to the edge of the desk and he will shout. <3 He has issues. I love him. He knows exactly which buttons to press to hurt the other person if he wants it to hurt. He doesn't even necessarily have to mean it. He's just awful

Cleo: she doesn't get angry too quickly, but they will get annoyed fairly quick. If you're argumentative they will Not like you. cough joel cough. she will snark her way out of getting angry tho, the other person usually stops beforehand

Bdubs: He gets angry and calms down in the matter of like 30 seconds so it's whatever. He mostly plays it up to be annoying and dramatic. <3

27. if applicable, do they have a favorite sport? do they play any sports or prefer to watch?

Etho: I think he hated PE way too much because he was a weak boy, he doesn't seek out to watch sports but he Will watch football with Joel. Like I can't for the life of me imagine that thing enjoying any sports. Maybe hiking but he's gona die from iron deficiency dizziness LOL . he can't do skating because his balance and feet suck, cant skii because he sucks, he cant run so he sucks at football and basketball and hockey, basically he sucks and hes gonna die . the only sport he can do is . uh . like. tennis. yeah. sulgpall :thumbsup:

Joel: Bro loves football. he probably still plays it even in college. loves watching it too. forces Etho to watch it. He's got mega calves from playing lmao. he's a pretty fast runner. and he's short so. lol

Cleo: doesn't care for sports but she doesn't mind playing volleyball and tennis <3 she WOULD however go skating each winter when the rinks open !!!!

Bdubs: played basketball in middle+high school, will watch it (and football) on tv but he's not exactly the most enthusiastic sports fan. i think he would go to the gym for funzies tho. :) perhaps he can take cleo with him too and they both do weights or sth

I DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT SPORT WHRUSDFUG im so bad at it so i dont care

this got so long goodriddens

#asks #college au #ask game

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wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The history of the prom dress

How the prom dress has evolved over the years. (Photo: Everett Collection, Art: Quinn Lemmers)

The prom has endured as a meaningful teenhood tradition for decades: It’s a hotly anticipated toast to high school, playing a pivotal part of basically any teen flick worth its salt (not to mention how pivotal it can be IRL too).

But the true roots of prom — short for “promenade” — are as a rite of passage, debuting at Northeast colleges such as Harvard University and Amherst College in the mid- to late 19th century, as relatively simple farewell dances for graduating classes. The practice skewed younger in the decade that followed, emerging as a teen tradition at high schools by the 1940s. Proms are held at some Canadian high schools, and they have also caught on to a lesser extent — and with a younger demographic — in the past decade or so in the U.K., although it hasn’t expanded much farther globally.

Proms are just one type of coming-of-age ceremony, along with quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, Catholic communions and confirmations, debutante balls, and weddings. All these rites of passage, and the carefully chosen clothes that are worn on these special occasions, have stuck around. But the prom dress differs from most rite-of-passage fashion traditions: It’s nonsecular, and not tied to any particular ethnicity, and, thus, it’s more universal.

It’s also the rare coming-of-age garment that can, and often does, telegraph a teen girl’s burgeoning sexuality, as sociologist Amy Best explores in her 2000 book, Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture. “The prom dress is critically important to this invention of a sexual self,” Best writes, detailing how she overheard some of the girls she interviewed describing their fathers’ “utter discomfort” upon seeing their risqué getups for the big night, which provide proof “that the girls had succeeded in transforming themselves.”

1942: High school seniors at their prom in Greenbelt, Md. (Photo: Getty Images)

Granted, the prom dress wasn’t very sexy at its midcentury inception. Prim and ultrafeminine was the M.O. instead. In the 1940s, prom dress silhouettes were often cut slim and close to the body. This wasn’t done for the sake of a sexier, more body-con dress: It was due to WWII fabric rations. These frocks had higher necklines and covered shoulders (often with some pouffy volume at the shoulders), with floor-grazing hemlines, often fabricated from heavy materials like velvet and taffeta.

1954: Prom in Cloyne, Canada (Photo: Wikicommons)

Ultrafeminine, waist-whittling tea-length dresses dominated the fashion vernacular in a big way in the 1950s, and it was the preferred shape for promgoers during that midcentury period too. The style includes fitted waists, full skirts, and calf-grazing hems, falling 3 to 4 inches below the knees. (Interestingly, the term “tea length” actually dates back to the dresses women wore when having teas circa the 1920s.) Some styles even were bedecked with frilly ruffles. Necklines were less demure than in previous decades, for the most part, and strapless styles were also common.

1960s: Students dancing at the Mariemont High School prom in Cincinnati. (Photo: Getty Images)

The early ‘60s brought about a return to closer-cut skirting that had been de rigueur two decades earlier, but purely for aesthetic reasons — not as a cost-cutting measure. Slimmer skirts were paired with higher waistlines, making for more of a baby-doll silhouette. Pastel palettes with Easter egg-worthy hues were popular, and dresses moved toward spaghetti-strap and boatneck shapes up top. Later in the decade, empire waist shapes rose to prominence, paired with a range of necklines, like sleeveless boatneck styles and square-neck short-sleeved iterations. And throughout the ‘60s, ultra-voluminous coifs were the norm.

However, proms fell out of favor to an extent as the decade wound down, thanks to shifting cultural attitudes based on political events and attitudes of the time: “The prom’s popularity waned in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s,” Best writes in Prom Night. “With countercultural movements, antiwar protests, and an antiestablishment stance, many ‘irreverent’ youth brought proms to a halt.”

1975: Susan Ford and her date, William Pifer, dance during the 1975 Holton Arms School Senior Prom, held in the East Room of the White House. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the 1970s, many prom dresses, reflecting the wider dress trends of the era, became roomier in cut, often without any definition at the waist whatsoever. Unlike the strapless, snug bodices or sleeveless styles that were dominant in previous decades of prom dressing, these frocks tended to have off-the-shoulder, possibly lace-trimmed necklines or long sleeves that were often sheer or billowy.

On the silver screen, Carrie depicted a considerably less dowdy take on the trend: a clean-lined strappy gown with a fluid skirt. Another iconic ‘70s prom dress was worn at the first, and only, prom to be held at the White House: Susan Ford, daughter of President Ford, donned a flowy, salmon-hued jersey gown designed by Albert Capraro, a former assistant to Oscar de la Renta. The frock was trimmed with a few buttons, plus a massive orchid corsage (as her classmates had).

1976: Carrie White, played by Sissy Spacek, is unexpectedly elected prom queen in Brian De Palma’s horror film Carrie. (Photo: Getty Images)

A major prom milestone of the ‘70s was the founding of Jessica McClintock: The brand, created by a former schoolteacher with no formal design training, went on to become synonymous with prom dressing in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and also did big business with bridesmaid gowns and other formalwear during those decades. While the designer herself retired in 2014, and her namesake stores were shuttered around the same time, the label still has licensing deals for some products, such as fragrances.

1986: Jon Cryer and Molly Ringwald in the film Pretty in Pink. (Photo: Everett Collection)

The maximalism of all things ‘80s certainly didn’t spare the prom dress category. The extravagant excess of the era translated to ultra-pouffy details like oversize bows or ruffles and flashy metallic materials. Tresses were teased and/or crimped, and the makeup of the era tended to be equally as over the top: heavily pigmented lids, copious amounts of self-tanner, and bold lips.

But the most memorable ‘80s prom dresses were certainly in the multiplex, as the teen-movie genre really solidified and took off in the decade, thanks in no small part to John Hughes’s iconic flicks. Take, for example, the pale pink dress — a thrift-store hand-me-down that gets some considerable revamping — worn by Andie (Molly Ringwald) in the seminal 1986 teen classic Pretty in Pink.

1990s: Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty in Beverly Hills 90210. (Photo: Fox)

In the early part of the ‘90s, prom frocks looked quite similar to those of the ‘80s in terms of having lots of pouf and ample metallic hues. Sweetheart necklines became quite popular for promgoers (and for fancy occasions in general), and while form-fitting bodices endured, the silhouette shifted slightly, with waistlines hitting closer to the hips.

Shorter hemlines with dramatic necklines were common too, among prom-worthy minidresses of the early ‘90s. To wit: the identical black tube dresses with massive, white bow-adorned off-the-shoulder necklines worn by both Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) and Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 in 1993. The style was so iconic, it inspired a runway look nearly a decade later, when designer Isaac Mizrahi trotted out a similar frock in his resort 2011 collection.

1999: Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You. (Photo: Everett Collection)

Later in the decade, slinky, spaghetti-strap slip dress or sheath styles reigned supreme. Recalling the iconic and ill-fated style that Sissy Spacek wore (and got drenched in pig blood) in Carrie, two decades before. These styles represented a trickle-down from what was seen on the runway during the era, most memorably in Calvin Klein collections circa the ‘90s. Two epic teen flicks that debuted on the silver screen in 1999 showcased the style: Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) in a deep purple gown with a lavender shawl in 10 Things I Hate About You, and Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) in her post-makeover prom reveal, replete with a sparkly, skinny-strapped LBD.

1999: Rachael Leigh Cook in She’s All That. (Photo: Everett Collection)

Other popular silhouettes of the ‘90s included skinny-strapped halter styles, which flaunted ample shoulder and back. As for length, a mix of floor-grazing gowns and minidresses ruled late ‘90s prom dance floors.

Rachel Bilson and Mischa Barton in The O.C. (Photo: Fox)

The new millennium brought about a mishmash of prom trends (spurred by the era’s prevailing fashion trends). Think: bubble-hemmed looks, like a wildly unrealistic, straight-off-the-runway Chanel frock worn by Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) to the prom on The O.C. in 2006. Strapless gowns with lots of shirred detailing were, and continue to be, popular, often sporting some level of sparkly embellishments and resembling colorful, slightly less voluminous iterations of wedding dresses. Sweetheart necklines, one-shouldered styles, and halter-style necklines were also popular.

Prom dress styles have certainly evolved — and gotten more scintillating — in the past two decades, becoming a more controversial topic in the process. Some schools have enforced restrictive and often sexist dress codes, which tend to predominantly control what girls can and can’t wear to the big event. By the 2010s, risqué prom dresses entered the picture, such as ones sporting dramatic cutouts, which tend to resemble the most revealing of Miss Universe getups or professional dance competition looks.

Social media and the evolution of celebrity red carpet style are largely responsible for these saucier prom looks, which include midriff-flaunting two-piece sets, ultrahigh slits, and sheer overlays on supershort minidresses (the latter lends a sense of modesty to a short, potentially controversial silhouette).

As for prom dresses of the 2020s and beyond, perhaps they’ll stay consistent with the styles dominating dance floors currently. Or the ’20s may usher in an entirely new era of prom frocks, continuing the decades-long tradition of getting gussied up for one last, festive hurrah of the all-important teen years.