The price of the average prom dress has increased considerably since Sharon Carmichael, owner of Vivid Vibes Boutique, went to prom while attending the James A. Garrettsville school district. Hoping to enable every high school student to have the chance to attend prom, Vivid Vibes Boutique will offer a selection of free prom dresses and accessories beginning on April 1.
“This means a lot to me that I have had that many people donate already,” Carmichael told The Weekly Villager. “It already makes me feel good that a lot of these students are now able to attend prom.”
Once the calendar turns to April, local high schools will bring students to the Boutique on field trips to look at the array of dresses. When a student finds the dress she wants, she can claim it as her own and wear it to prom with other free accessories.
“All of the schools have these events where they dress up in different outfits and prom is a really big deal especially in Northeast Ohio,” said Carmichael. “We are trying to get these dresses because they have rallies and different things that really lead up to prom and that has to be hard on some of these students that can’t actually attend because they can’t afford it. It is your last two years out of high school that you are able to attend, and people use that as a huge memory.”
In addition to free dresses, Carmichael purchased jewelry and the Boutique will offer them as free accessories to the dresses that are selected. Carmichael noted the additional jewelry helps complete the perfect prom attire.
“Every girl wants to wear jewelry with their dress to feel fancier,” she added. “The fact that they are going to be able to get complimentary jewelry will make them happy and make these girls feel like princesses and that is what we are going for.”
According to Carmichael, Boutique manager Kim Reeder’s daughter, Delilah, told them that some of her classmates at Windham High School were making Tik Tok videos on social media saying they could not afford to buy prom dresses and would have to miss the prom.
Carmichael said that when she attended prom, dresses were sold anywhere from $300 to $500 but now start at $500 and can go as high as $1,000, almost as much money someone would spend on a wedding dress.
The two created fliers and distributed them around Portage County then contacted school superintendents to discuss their options, and the idea to make it so that high school girls could have a dress to attend prom was born.
After contacting various media outlets, Vivid Vibes Boutique’s prom dress initiative was covered by Channel 5 news to get the word out and the donations have been pouring in. In the first week since the announcement was made, the Boutique has already collected 70 dresses.
Carmichael said the Boutique has set a goal of collecting at least 300 dresses by the end of March before high school students typically begin their search for the perfect prom dress. She added that she hopes the Boutique receives donations of dresses in all different sizes so high school students have plenty of options.
“Dresses fit all women differently because everyone is shaped differently so I want enough dresses so that these girls can get in these dresses and feel confident in them, so it is not too tight and it is not too loose and it fits them well, so we need a large variety of dresses for these students to choose from,” Carmichael said.
If there are some sizes missing from the donations, then Carmichael plans to visit Goodwill outlets around the area to find the missing sizes. If any dresses have rips or tears in them, the Boutique will perform alterations before making them available.
Carmichael added that she does expect to have some dresses leftover when the special ends, but the Boutique will keep those dresses in stock and wait until the next big dance and offer the same special. Carmichael said the Boutique wants to make this dress special an annual tradition.
“Some of them have been sitting around for many years as long as we have them stored properly, we have a storage room for that, and as long as we have the dresses they will be completely fine and completely covered,” Carmichael said.
