In honor of prom season, for this post, I decided to re-try on five dresses I got when I was a teenager to wear to school dances and rate them. I hadn’t touched most of these dresses for years. Some of these dresses were fashion mistakes, and some are decent from my current fashion perspective. Let’s get started and see what went right (or wrong).
1. Freshman Fairy
Rating: 2/10
I wore this dress to my freshman year of high school homecoming. I feel like all of our first homecoming dresses looked somewhat like this. Just lost and confused. My real issue is with all of the different embellishments. The sparkly pearl belt with the sparkly fabric clashes so much it makes my head spin.
Why doesn’t the belt wrap all the way around the waist?? I’m laughing. The dress teeters on the line of “costume.” I feel like I belong in Tinkerbell’s group of fairy friends. One positive aspect I will say is I like that it reflects that time period, my age at the time, and some sense of innocence.
2. Royal & Floral
Rating: 7/10
I got this dress in high school, but I never wore it to an event until I was in college. I have to admit I think the royal blue and pink look great together. Also, this dress fit me so well. My current self isn’t the biggest fan of floral print, but I don’t think this floral print is terrible. I never went for poofy dresses, so this short take on volume worked for me.
3. Gold Cocktail Dress
Rating: 8/10
I wore this gold dress once to a high school band dinner dance. I don’t feel like I have the type of body always fit for strapless dresses. So, I love a dress with a strap or sleeve. The sleeve also helps shape the body silhouette more here. If you like to shine, I think this is a perfect example of a sparkly cocktail dress.
4. Navy & Lacey
Rating: 9/10
I got this dress around my sophomore or junior year of high school. I never ended up wearing it. It actually still has the tags on it. I think I partially never wore it because too many other people were wearing something too similar to this at dances. I like how the sparkly fabric is an embellishment to the nude underlay. This dress has the perfect amount of drama for my liking. It doesn’t do too much. Perhaps I’ll find an occasion I could still wear this dress to.
5. Old Hollywood
Rating: 10/10
I wore this dress when I was 19 I believe. It was one of those moments I was going back to a high school event, and I wanted to pick something that felt a little more mature. I love a look that is simple and elegant. I love that it has long sleeves, and it fits like a glove. I can tell here that what I was learning in fashion school was already starting to kick in. I was making sense of how to dress for my body, and I was developing my personal style.
Kempress Closet 