Prom Night

Seeing as I'm on a Americana trip from my previous post and that I got reminded of certain heart shaped penny cut-out loafers, I realised that I never did post these Rachel Antonoff pictures from her A/W 11-12 'The Dance' presentation held in Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School near Lincoln Centre.  I clambered up to the 4th floor gymnasium and was immediately swept into a movie set prom, the sort that like loafers and vintage Coach bags, I have no real personal connection to.  Blame it on my all-girls secondary school with slightly leftist/unorthodox tendencies (we campaigned to wear trousers to school – me thinks coaxing half my year into prom dresses complete with dates might have been a hardship).  The band The Like performing at the 'prom' only made it even more filmic.  I was half expecting a choreographed dance to Fatboy Slim to start happening in amongst us.

As I was getting high on prom-paraphernalia, we had a mix of models and real students sporting a pretty mix of clothes that are about as far away from 80s acetate/lame frock horrors as one can get.  Antonoff‚Äôs clothes didn‚Äôt play second fiddle to the setup.  A print made up of of brass band instruments graced dresses and skirts and were paired with cute cardis.  Stripy preppy sweaters are paired with lame metallic shorts for a slightly more boyish take on prom wear.  Organza ruffle back and bow-fronted dresses were more akin to the sort of prom attire that would have made my heart beat when I was 17.   The shoes from the G.H. Bass collab makes the perfect shoe for energetic dancing.  

Yet even after the five minutes it takes me to take in the clothes at a presentation, I couldn't tear myself away from the playacting that was going on in that gymnasium.  Highly recognizable prom archetypes played out – the loner dude and the the awkward goth-y girl who supposedly hate prom (but obviously don't hate it enough not to be there…), the cute popular couple, the energetic 'quirky' girl, the guy who looks a bit too proud of himself as he‚Äôs about to get crowned and err… a strange girl with a cat on the benches (it's a good thing Antonoff invented her own prom charicatures before it all got a bit too predictable…).  Were it not for the fact that there was another show to whizz off to downtown, I could have stayed in that gymnasium all day long to see what couplings and teen-emo drama was going to play out.

Sadly there was no king and queen crowning or triumph moment but it was a transporting presentation that was definitely a respite from your straight forward catwalk show.  Plus I can say I finally got to go prom.  Even if I was just the and over-the-hill observer and geeky photographer.  There goes another archetype.  Write me into the improbable, straight-to-video sequel to Never Been Kissed, godamnit! 

(Slightly changed up from the original post on Glamour)