PROM 2023 LOOKBOOK

Revealing what students wore to prom

BY CHIRAN ARUMUGAM AND AASHI VENKAT

Lemon Liu

Junior Lemon Liu meticulously curated her prom outfit to reflect her personal style and make a statement. Opting for a stunning black dress as the base of their outfit, they found all the necessary components on etsy. com. The dress itself resonated with him, exuding a certain “vibe” that he chose in order to specifically match concept photos from the song “Black Swan” by BTS.

“The dress is personal to me because it’s my favorite color at the moment,” Liu said. “I think the vibe of the dress really matches what I like to typically wear. It’s giving Black Swan — emo, but sophisticated emo.”

In addition to the black dress, Liu added black wings and leaflike components, finishing the outfit off with black gloves. Although she initially considered another outfit, Liu ultimately settled on the black dress and accessories, which aligned with her style and offered comfort.

“I was looking at other [outfits], but none of them really clicked with me and I was debating whether or not I should wear a suit or traditional cultural clothing, a qipao, but I still wanted to wear black, so I was like, let’s look at black dresses,” Liu said.

Liu originally planned on custommaking some of the parts of their dress themselves, but because of the decision being too close to prom, they had to order some parts online. However, they spent time putting together each part of the outfit in an intricate way to make sure it was the “most personal” to them.

“It felt like an epiphany to add the wings and find that dress,” Liu said. “I feel like there is a certain part of creativity with the whole outfit, so I’m kind of proud of myself for how it

PHOTOS|AASHIVENKAT

Ved Anumala

Decked out in a black and white tuxedo, senior Ved Anumala describes his outfit as more traditional compared to what others are wearing to prom. However, he says the lines on the shirt add character, setting it apart from the typical plain white dress shirt.

“The shirt has some different lining to it that is from Switzerland that makes it special,” Anumala said. “I was originally going for a plain white dress shirt. But then when I saw it, I was like, ‘Hey, that looks pretty interesting,’ so I kind of just went with it.”

A sage green bow tie adds a pop of color to his outfit. Anumala

Alicia Xu

Dressed in a green hanfu, a traditional Chinese dress, senior Alicia Xu sought to get more in touch with her culture through her senior prom attire. According to Xu, her mother picked out the dress when shopping in China, going with a green dress since green is Xu’s favorite color.

“I’ve been thinking about this dress since last prom,” Xu said. “I have a friend of a friend who [is] Japanese and she’s really into her culture and trying to reconnect with [it more], and I was thinking the same thing. I’ve been feeling really disconnected from my

Chinese heritage. My mom went back to visit China for the first time a few weeks ago, and that really inspired me to reconnect with my roots and my ancestry, [so] I thought it would be really nice to try something different and [wear] a cultural dress.” attributes this to his date’s dress, as he purchased the bow tie from Tuxedo Warehouse to match her dress.

“I really like her dress and in the process of picking it out, it was between a darker green and sage green and I thought sage green was pretty good,” Anumala said. “And I also thought it works better with the black and white because even though it’s so simple, it still looks pretty good.”