For anyone who turned 16 in the days before social media, leavers' ball was probably a sartorial nadir. At mine, boys wore ill-fitting suits and disgusting amounts of hair gel; girls were resplendent in lilac chiffon and diamante shoes. Thankfully – pre-Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram – the only photographic evidence is a few blurry snaps, curling at the edges, hidden away in a box under the bed.
Leavers' ball 2014 is a very different proposition. Now more commonly known as prom, the event has become an industry worth at least £80m a year, with students and parents shelling out for dresses, suits, accessories, limousines and corsages. There are dedicated prom fashion shows, pre-and post-prom parties, and prom has muscled in on the wedding fayre market, too.
From Carrie's blood-soaked prom massacre to Molly Ringwald's satin halterneck in Pretty in Pink, Hollywood prom scenes have long inspired British-based designers – as seen, most recently, at Ashish. But it has only been in the past decade that this aspect of US culture has seeped into the real lives of teenagers in the UK. "Ninety-five per cent of schools have a major summer party or prom now," says Monique Wyatt, co-founder of prom "one stop shop" Myschool Proms. "Students get summer jobs and start saving for their dresses anything up to two years ahead. Some spend £1,000 on their dress alone. We meet teachers who say students – and their parents – are pushing for five-star hotel venues, and boys who pay to hire fire trucks or milk floats so they look unusual when they arrive."
"Prom as a concept has 'crept over' from the US, just as Halloween did before it," agrees Melanie Berry of Claire's Accessories – a major player in the market. "The first proms started in UK senior schools six or seven years ago as a celebration of leaving school, but they are now becoming popular in primary schools, too. It's like a rite of passage, a chance to celebrate a key 'first' in their lives." From the schools' perspective, Wyatt believes that teachers use prom as a carrot – and sometimes as a stick, too: "They can say, if you don't work hard, you won't be allowed to go to prom."
Company magazine launched its first dedicated prom app this year, and editor-in-chief Vic White says the trend came from teenagers. "These are people who grew up with Hannah Montana and other Disney Channel imports." While there are plenty of specialist prom boutiques and bridal shops with prom ranges around the country, in the past few years, mainstream retailers have targeted the sparkly set in earnest. Last year, Topshop launched a "Topshop Prom Queen" competition, giving students the chance to win a bespoke dress – plus hair and makeup – by submitting a dress moodboard packed with fashion references.
Claire's Accessories launched its first dedicated prom catalogue this year, as well as opening a prom pop-up shop in London's South Molton Street in May. At Debenhams, sales of evening gowns costing more than £180 have risen by 250% from January to March compared with the same period last year, and the retailer launched its first dedicated proms section on its website in April. The importance of prom has spread to more alternative retailers, too, with east-London vintage mecca Beyond Retro holding its first dedicated prom night this year.
It is hardly surprising that prom is becoming an increasingly huge deal in the Instagram age, when every moment is captured and shared. Maaria Abbasi, 15, has already started thinking about her dress, though the big day is more than a year away. She says that outfit planning is not competitive: "It's the one day of the year that everyone goes to, there are no ranks – it's not bitchy, but you do want to look good because the photographs will be all over social media."
So what will girls and boys wear to the 2014 prom? "More is more," says White. "It's an opportunity to wear a big dress with sequins and tulle and flowers and pink. They might have pastel-dyed hair or wear pointy flats, so they don't necessarily look frou-frou, but this is still an opportunity to look quite girlie." For boys, it's all about "a fitted Arctic Monkeys suit with a thin tie and Nick Grimshaw hair". Style icons include Lily Collins, Elle Fanning, Chloë Moretz and, for the boys, Brooklyn Beckham.
As with a wedding outfit, prom dressing is a difficult task – many girls seem to want to look creative and alternative, but end up going full princess in peach tulle. Emily Sheffield, Vogue's deputy editor, who also edits Miss Vogue, the twice-yearly spin-off aimed at under 21s, suggests teenagers should look to designers including Simone Rocha, Marc by Marc Jacobs (whose new head designer, Luella Bartley, has "always had a rebel prom girl in her collections,") aand Meadham Kirchhoff for quirky inspiration, as well as to those who create more traditional gowns, including Dior and Oscar de la Renta. She hopes that Brits put their own spin on prom dressing: "Maybe chuck a leather jacket or an army fatigue over the top to masculinise it. The teens I know, that read Miss Vogue, are really into the androgynous look." Beyond Retro's Jenna Aarons says that key looks include "70s floaty chiffon with full skirts, classic 1950s prom styles with fitted bodices and circular skirts, 80s full-beaded dropped waists and 90s slip styles," for an undone prom look inspired by Kate Moss in the 1990s.
Whatever the students' personal style, individuality is a key concern; the fear of wearing the same frock as someone else is so entrenched that exclusivity is a huge part of prom dressing. Many boutiques promise not to sell the dresses to more than one member of the same school, while larger retailers like Topshop produce limited-edition runs of only around 500 pieces worldwide, with the prom market in mind. If it sounds like a fuss about nothing, says Wyatt, try to look at it from the students' perspective: "They say: 'You only have one prom – but you can have many weddings.' That's how they see it."
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