Girls’ fashion is famously broad and colorful, and this includes not only everyday wear but also girls’ formal wear for special occasions. A birthday party (especially a Sweet Sixteen), or a formal house party or awards banquet is the right time for a teenage girl to find a formal and attractive outfit, but there’s more. Teenagers often look forward to attending prom and a homecoming dance, and boys and girls will find the right formal wear for this. Boys will be fitted for tuxedos and suits, while girls will look for a prom dress online or an evening dress online for other events, too. Homecoming dresses may be found as well, and many high school students look forward to their homecoming dance. When a high school girl is browsing for a prom dress online, what might she look for, and what shopping strategies might she and her parents use to get a fair purchase before the big night? There’s more to it than swiping a credit card, to say the least.
Women and Apparel
A teenage girl looking for a prom dress online isn’t alone. The textiles industry in the United States is enormous, and a lot of it is women’s and girls’ apparel in particular, and both are trending upwards. E-commerce is the sale of items online, and it’s growing fast for everything from food to furniture to finding a prom dress online. Where clothing in particular is concerned, studies have found that in 2018, fashion e-commerce made up 20.4% of all fashion sales made in the United States, one fifth of it all just through the Internet. What is more, a little further back in August 2017, women’s apparel stood as the number one top-selling item on the Internet. Overall, experts believe that this will not only continue but grow. The American apparel market may grow to a value of $385 billion or so by 2025, and around the world, revenue for e-commerce may reach $712.9 billion by 2022. A teenage girl looking for her ideal prom dress online sure has plenty of options to choose from.
Making the Purchase
Before spending money on a prom dress, though, the customer should know her measurements, and this is something that a tailor or seamstress can help with. This means visiting a tailor shop in person, and there are many thousands of tailor, dress makers, and seamstresses at work in the United States today. These are no ordinary sales associates at a department store. They have focused skill and experience with advanced clothing types and measuring a customer for the right outfit, both men and women. While men often get their measurements for a suit or a tux, girls will be measured all over for a custom made dress and their overall dress size. One thing to make clear: some types of dresses may have a different scale for dress size, such as a cocktail dress vs a bridesmaid’s dress. A woman or girl is advised to get herself measured and fitted for the particular type of dress that she will wear, rather than have a personal “one size fits all.” Otherwise, she may end up ordering something too big or small to wear. Visiting a tailor, and telling them that the customer is looking for a prom or homecoming dress in particular, can set all the details straight.
The customer may also browse her many options for what her prom or homecoming dress may look like, and even use her friends or a date as context. Girls often like to coordinate their outfit’s colors, material, and shape with that of their friends or a date, and it’s possible for a girl’s outfit to clash with that of her date. So, coordination is suggested, and this can make any couple look elegant and classy at their prom or high school homecoming dance. Fashion for such gowns is varied and may change by year, but online and paper magazines and articles may provide all kinds of references as a girl browses her options online. An ordered dress may arrive in a dress bag to keep it in good shape during transit, and will be the right size for her outfit.
