Prom: a classic high school tradition. While the guys probably don’t think about prom until the week before, most ladies have been dreaming about prom and finding that perfect dress for years. Wearing a beautiful dress is important–after all, you don’t want those inevitable prom pictures to come back and haunt you. Since just about every high school senior around the country attends a prom, you’d think there would be a better selection of dresses from which to choose.

Websites like promgirl.com are exploding with hundreds of flashy, tacky, glitzy dresses; and Prom Dress Express literally sounds like an industrial machine that just pumps out ugly dresses all day long. Of course there are decent dresses mixed in, but they are certainly few and hard to find. Personally, I do not understand the appeal of excessive gemstones or glitter.

Unfortunately, there are very few places on the Cape to get a prom dress. Unless you are the type of person who loves online shopping, it is almost impossible to avoid going off-Cape to look for a dress. I have my occasional online shopping sprees, but when it comes to prom dresses, not being able to physically feel the dress’ fabric and actually try it on is a major downside. A dress that might look terrible in a picture might end up looking amazing on you–or vice versa. You might have found your dream dress on Etsy, but a lot of times these dresses aren’t returnable. Pinterest is great if the pin links to websites, but sometimes all you get is a picture of a great dress and no where to buy it.

And how reliable are the online sites? A picture might be worth a thousand word (description), but can also be incredibly deceiving. Your dress finally arrives at your front door and is a totally different color than the picture, and looks nothing like it did on the model. Because, let’s face it, most people just don’t look like models.

This year seems to have brought a new trend for prom dresses–the two-piece dress. This “two-piece dress” is quite contradictory. Isn’t the whole point of a dress that it is one piece? I must admit I have seen a couple of these dresses that do look pretty, but not for prom. I am all for wearing a unique dress to avoid blending in with the crowd, but the two-piece dress just doesn’t do it for me.

In my search for my own perfect prom dress, I have found it better to look at gowns or formal maxi dresses as opposed to prom dresses. This way, you tend to avoid the rhinestones and other unnecessary details. Add a statement necklace to a simple dress or try out unique fabrics or styles. There are ways around the stereotypical prom dresses, you just have to be willing to look.

As fashion icon Coco Chanel said, “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”