Crazy, cool high school prom dresses

Prom fashion was never creative or unusual when I was in high school. I remember most of us wore a “tutu” of some sort.

We were “too too” tall. Too short, too fat, too skinny, too loud, too quiet, too smart, too dumb. High school years were all about the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

If I had a little more nerve, I’d post a picture of my prom dress from the 80s. My long dress with lace sleeves and tiny floral print looks nothing like the bedazzled, bejeweled, bewilderingly expensive dresses of today.

Young women and men pose for photos looking like they’re heading to a red-carpet premier with stunning dresses, sleek tuxes and stretch limos. There’s the pre-prom dinner and the post-prom party. The average family is spending $1,078 this year , according to the National Retail Federation.

For some teens though, prom isn’t about displaying their wealth it’s about showing off their creativity. Missouri teen Maura Pozek has made each of her three prom dresses. This year her dress is made of cardboard, which was more difficult to make than her soda-tab gown and her Doritos bag cocktail dress.

The Detroit Free Press featured some prom dresses they asked teens to create out of their newspaper pages.

A Michigan teen put together a sweet dress made of thousands of Starburst candy wrappers. Here’s her photo from WLUC-TV.

By LINDA THOMAS