FASHION : Grad Wear: Dancing on a Thin Line
You’ve seen them on Saturdays, shopping at the mall, girls too young for a prom but too old to stay home and play with Barbie dolls.
This June, thousands of these young teen-agers will graduate from the eighth grade of private and public schools around Southern California. With Madonna as their idol, they are planning for the most important social event on their calendar: the graduation dance. But these 13- and 14-year-olds must deal with a major sartorial dilemma: the graduation night dress code.
The dances they look forward to attending range from semiformal to downright casual events. Either way, school administrators have instituted scores of fashion guidelines to keep dare-to-bare looks at bay.
Myrna Fujimoto, principal of Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Long Beach, said her school’s rules came about as a natural extension of the school’s philosophy: nurture the children.
“We separate them from high school activities such as proms and its formality,” Fujimoto said. “Let them be children here, and adults when they go to high school.”
This spring for the first time, Fujimoto sent an activities bulletin home with students which parents were to sign and return. Among the statements included about graduation activities: “. . . formal dress is neither desirable, suitable or acceptable for graduating students.”
To further discourage inappropriate evening wear for girls, the school dance has been recast from formal to informal, and Fujimoto set the time at the early hour of 5 p.m. These changes came about, she said, after she spent one too many graduation nights in the ladies room, helping 13- and 14-year-old girls pull up their falling, strapless dresses, which slipped downward every time they took a spin on the dance floor.
“The rules are not to stifle fashion individuality but to ensure that what is worn is appropriate,” Fujimoto said of the changes she has put into effect.
At St. Mel’s Catholic School in Woodland Hills the dress code is even more specific. The graduation dance fashion code requires that dresses must not be too tight or too short. Above-the-knee styles are acceptable but none can be in the mid-thigh range. Dresses must not be too sheer or feature cutouts or strapless necklines. One concession: Some strapless dresses will be permitted if an accompanying jacket is sewn onto the dress.
Similar rules apply at neighboring Our Lady of the Valley school in Canoga Park, where strapless dresses have been vetoed as inappropriate attire for the school’s semiformal dance. Teachers have already briefed students about the fashion guidelines. Parents were informed of the rules as well, during a general meeting held at the school.
Given the guidelines, young shoppers are combing the L.A. area’s junior shops and department stores in search of something they like and can wear without fear of rejection.
At this late date, with most of the high school proms already past, many junior-sized special occasion outfits are marked down. Still, what most girls find in stores are as far outside the guidelines as Madonna’s lingerie-like stage clothes would be.
“We can’t wear anything radical, but we don’t want anything too conservative, either,” explains Jennifer McNicoll, a 13-year-old West Hills resident who will be attending the dance at St. Mel’s. McNicoll, who recently combed San Fernando Valley malls with pals Lori Hanis, Judy Munoz and Melanie Walker, had little luck finding anything in her first few mall expeditions.
As the foursome combed the racks in department and specialty stores in search of dresses in Topanga Plaza, they complained of the lack of selection in stores and the rules at school.
“I would wear this but I’d get busted,” McNicoll muttered as she held up a white strapless gown at the Judy’s boutique in Topanga Plaza. Her friends admired the dress but moved on in search of something that would pass inspection.
“It’s so frustrating,” moaned Walker as she made a beeline into neighboring Contempo Casuals to comb the racks there. No luck. After two hours (and only a couple of try-ons at Saks Fifth Avenue at Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills) the girls gave up for the day.
McNicoll said she shopped nine stores before finally finding a dress. She was shopping with her mother that day, in the Ames store at the Northridge Mall. The long-sleeve ivory dress with lavender Swiss dots is mid-knee length. But the low-cut back had to be altered to pass school inspection.
“I like the dress,” said McNicoll, “so many of the others I tried on were ify--like, I could wear one if I had to but I really didn’t like any of them.”
Hanis, a 13-year-old Woodland Hills resident and classmate of McNicoll, finally found a suitable dress that she liked at Windsor Fashions in the Sherman Oaks Galleria.
“I even like it better than the ones that break the rules. It’s not trashy--it’s beautiful,” said Hanis of the white long-sleeve dress enhanced with a lattice front of white ribbon and a flirty flounce. Hanis said she shopped dozens of stores before finding something that was “legal.”
Kathy Hanis, Lori’s mother, said she sympathized with her daughter after going shopping with her.
“You can’t find that many dresses that look right for young teens,” she said. “What they have in the stores looks more like dresses for a senior in high school.” Hanis was with her daughter when she finally found the right dress.
Some store personnel have taken it on themselves to help the girls select clothes that conform to school guidelines. And some sales people at local mall boutiques know the codes as well as the students do, since hordes of girls have been in the stores during the past several months, rattling off the dos and don’ts.
Sheri Odefey, assistant manager of Windsor Fashions in Northridge Mall, said she tries to talk pre-high school girls into cotton dresses in pastel shades.
“What they need for this is a little different from a prom dress,” Odefey said. “When they try to go toward a prom look, I try to show them what will be more appropriate.” To date, Odefey said, she can’t recall any returns made because of rule-breaking selections.
“These girls know what they need when they come in,” said Odefey.
Do designers of special-occasion dresses know what these girls need? Carlotta Khero, vice president of design at New Leaf, an L.A.-based special-occasion wear manufacturer, personally sympathizes with the problem. Her 14-year-old daughter, Marvi, who attends A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, shopped her mother’s designer line and checked out local stores.
Finally, she asked her mother to whip up a black strapless dress and a matching bolero jacket since her school required that girls cover their shoulders for the graduation dance. The 14-year-old said many of her friends ordered fitted, long-sleeve dresses at above-the-knee length, from the Victoria’s Secret catalogue.
“I was dreading going to the stores to find something,” she admits.
Her mother, speaking as a designer, said the market is a tough one to service.
“It’s a quandary. Girls want sophisticated, sexy dresses and they’ll head to the missy department to find them. These 14- and 15-year-olds don’t want to be categorized as younger,” she said.
Several students at Thomas Jefferson are disappointed that the traditionally more “grown-up,” night-time graduation dance was changed to an informal late-afternoon event this year.
“So they don’t want it to seem like a prom? It’s our last dance,” said Shannon Brown. Instead of a fancy dress, she said she will probably wear jeans and a new shirt.
Classmate Joanne Batshon of Seal Beach, informally referred to as the school’s fashion plate, said she had purchased a strapless dress before she found out about the rules.
“It’s supposed to be special. Now it’s just a dance,” she sighed.
Britt Nilsen, a 14-year-old Long Beach resident, bought a new outfit at The Gap, one she plans to wear later to school. The peach color, long-sleeve top has a matching skirt.
Earlier this year, Nilsen said, her mother gave her a choice of getting a new Easter dress or a new dress for the dance, which, at the time, she thought would be semi-formal.
“I missed out a new dress for Easter for nothing,” said Nilsen.
Fourteen year-old Evelyn May, student council president at Jefferson Middle School, is one of the few students who favors the new guidelines.
“We should hold some things back until we get to high school,” she said. “If we’ve already done it all, we won’t have anything to look forward to.”
