I’m gonna be very frank with you—I get approached from time to time by people who make things and who want me to help them sell their things. I often say no.
Companies have had PR departments working on their behalf since forever, of course, and social media has, to a certain extent, made corporate shills of many of us—post a picture with a product or cheerfully engage a manufacturer online, and you’re basically hawking their product for them.
While I don’t like “selling” things for the sake of selling, I do love spreading the word about things I dig, especially if I can somehow gift the diggable thing to others as well. Which is why we’re here today.
The good folks at PromGirl invited me to their runway show recently, and then they offered me a dress. I know lots of people in the world don’t turn down anything free, but it feels a bit gluttonous to me to amass things with no specific purpose. I have lots of dresses, and look at how lucky I am to even have them offered to me, gratis?
That’s not a humblebrag; that’s a full-on brag. OK maybe not—bragging is heinous—but perhaps it’s a statement of gratitude that I’m acknowledging might come off as braggy? I’m just saying I feel lucky that in the realm of all that we deal with on any given day, and with all of the problems we face, I’ve personally got the formalwear thing covered. To have access to comped or loaned gowns is not something I take for granted, and I want to share it with one of you.
I asked the PromGirl peeps if I could pass along the gift of a free dress to someone out there, and they were cool with it. Then I asked my xoJane family if I could write a post to let people know I’m organizing this contest, and they were cool with it. (The giveaway is coming directly from PromGirl.)
I’m the worst salesperson in the world because I have to really believe in something and use it myself in order to recommend it, and if I do recommend it, I’m going to tell you the truth about it. Luckily for me and my poor salesmanship, the truth here is that PromGirl has the widest selection of special event dresses online, and today you get to choose one and enter for a chance to win it.
PromGirl features over 40 designers and fashion lines to browse, so good luck not getting overwhelmed—you may want to search in shifts. If I were forced to choose, my favorite lines might be Faviana, Sherrri Hill, and Jovani, but there are loads more that might tickle you pink. Or blue. Or silver with sequins. Or any of these looks from their stellar runway show, which blew me away:
I admit that when I see how elegant some of today’s prom dresses are, I feel like a dusty old lady thinking something like these kids today are in such a rush to grow up. I know that high school students serving couture for one special night isn’t a new phenomenon, but, as with so many other areas of life, the rate at which young ladies and gents are growing up feels like it’s accelerating.
Personally, I didn’t have a traditional prom experience. I went to two high schools concurrently; “regular” high school for academics in the morning and a performing arts magnet school in the afternoon. I fantasized about being asked to the “regular” school prom, but I just didn’t have the kind of adolescence where I was asked to the prom (or to anywhere), and I didn’t want to go by myself or with friends. The performing arts school had an end-of-the-year dance for the seniors, which I went to, and enjoyed. I made my own “dress” for that, which was actually a saucy little two-piece getup more fit for clubbing than a school dance, then again that was a very non-traditional gathering of mostly dateless artists and misfits, and it was a ball. Just nothing befitting an actual ball gown.
That right there is not just a ball gown, it’s a Disney-sanctioned replica of Cinderella’s actual gown from the movie. I saw it in person at the runway show and it actually looks like that, minus the trail of singing mice. Maybe you’ll win and choose that princess style?
Are you promming this year and looking for a dress? ‘Tis the season; enter to win one! Are you well past the prom years? You and me both! Maybe you have a formal event to attend? Or maybe you want to choose one of the hundreds of short styles and be the baddest bitch at the club this weekend? Or maybe you want to do what I did and just wear a formal dress wherever and whenever the hell you please?
I wore this dress, borrowed from PromGirl, as I went about my business running errands and whatnot on an extremely ordinary day earlier this week. I’ve had many formalwear experiences at formal events, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to do some decidedly less formal activities before returning the dress to the showroom.
Sidenote: whenever I borrow a dress, I’m hyperaware of trying to keep it clean, and especially not spill anything on it or muck it up with my sweaty armpits. Whenever I raise this concern, I’m assured that there are mystical dry cleaning methods made just for this sort of thing since all manner of sweat and mishaps happen during photo shoots and fashion shows. But still. Armpits.
If you’re the winner of a dress of your own, you won’t be returning it, and you can also wear it wherever you want. You don’t need my permission, of course. But there it is. You also don’t need to be anything but your wonderful self, and you get to choose whatever dress you’d like from the site!* Dude, dudette, young, old… do you want a fancy dress to be fancy in? Enter here now!
*If you’re selected as the winner, you get to choose a dress, maximum price of $500. Please see entrance page for full rules and regulations, and good luck!