2012 Prom Dresses: What’s Hot, What’s Not

These dresses from the Southern High prom registry page on Facebook show a McQueen influence.

In 1999, when British fashion designer Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) sent a model out on to the runway to have her white dress spray-painted by two robots as she twirled on a platform, it was audacious and cost McQueen his job at the fashion house Louis Vuitton. Fast forward 13 years, and the trend has hit local high school proms, where dresses with wild prints seem to have a foothold.

Check out these two dresses at left. The pink one was worn by one Southern High student at Saturday’s prom. There are more in the slideshow at the bottom of this story.

Not so shocking are the Grecian styles with tight bodices, empire waists and full skirts that are trending among prom-goers in 2012.

Many are opting for the ethereal flow of layers of chiffon. And really, who doesn’t want to look like they are floating across the dance floor? It could actually provide help if your  “moves (aren’t) like Jagger.”

This South River prom dress shows another trend: the uneven hem.

Also hot are uneven hems (dare we say a modified “dress mullet”—a cocktail party in front, formal in back?). Sorry. that sounds insulting. It is a pretty look, and an opportunity to show off a little leg—like Angelina Jolie during the 2012 Academy Awards red carpet walk.

Other trends are metallic hues, sequins, embellishments and one-shouldered dresses.

The "necklace" is included in this dress that one lucky South River senior snagged.

Take a look at the dress to the right. Strands and strands of pearls come together at the neckline, doing a job of making the dress chic and functional. Is it decoration or holding the top up? This is the dress selected by one South River student. With a statement like that at the top of the dress, everything else has got to be simple.

Not hot this year are jewel tones, which hit hard in the proms of 2008-2010, but are apparently not all the rage in 2012. This year soft colors are all the rage. Think cotton candy or sorbet.

Curiously, lace did not translate from spring fashions and Oscar red carpets to prom dresses this year.

We found all of these looks on Facebook at pages dedicated to the 2012 prom at both South River and Southern High Schools. None of the photos selected are students. Typically, the girls post photos of the dress from a magazine or website, sometimes they post themselves in the dressing room, or with the dress hanging from the closet door.

The pages start to pop up as early as December of January. Most seem to have found their dress in April.

The upside to the Facebook page is that these young ladies have established a code of honor with one another—if someone posts the dress as theirs, nobody else will wear the same.

This prevents that horrible moment when you walk into your prom and someone (in the movies it is always your arch-enemy) is wearing the same dress.

This year’s South River prom will take place at M&T Stadium in Baltimore on May 27. Southern’s prom took place on Saturday at the BWI Marriott in Linthicum.