Hi, I'm Meredith Webster, I'm a junior in high school and this is my dress design for the Free 2010 Prom Dress of your Own Design. The inspiration for my design came from several different aspects of my life that I feel represent me best. I had been thinking of what would be the prefect dress, and so at first I thought of Disney Princesses, and my favorite is Belle, that is where the off the shoulder straps and sweet heart neckline come from. The skirt portion reminds me of the dresses in West Side Story(one of my favorite musicals) where they do extravagant and fun dances that look great with the petticoats and full circle skirts. And with black as the color it is a new outlook on the classic little black dress.

     The dress' style is that of the 50's swing dresses. It has a sweetheart neckline, decorative off the shoulder straps, and silver embroidered vines and leaves as well as a full circle skirt and white petticoat to add volume. I chose the swing style because swing is my favorite kind of dance form, but also this dress style suits my body type and most others. Unfortunately this style is not in right now and it is near to impossible to find in malls near me.

    The leaves and vines express the outdoors side of me, and since they are rather simple they wouldn't be over bearing or tacky.  Black would make the leaves and vines pop, which would add to the uniqueness of the design.

    I though that the petticoat would help add body, and red or white would work with well with the black dress and silver leaves. The idea for the built in bra was that this way there would never be the issue of showing bra straps or allergic reactions to the plastic sticky stuff that hold strapless bras up which I know many people are allergic to.

    In my personal opinion every dress should have some form of pockets because I know that it is difficult to remember where your wallet is or your phone and it doesn't always seem fair to make the guy hold everything so therefore I thought that adding relatively deep pockets( about 10 inches deep) with enough space for my wallet, phone, keys, and my ticket would be important.

    I'm not  exceptionally tall, I'm actually quite short (just under 5' 2) and therefore a floor length dress would make me appear shorter but super short dresses (which appear to be all that they sell) make me feel uncomfortable and insecure, that is why I decided to go with a skirt that ended just below the knee with a little bit of the petticoat visible.

    My dress design is simple, flirtatious, and flattering to practically any body type. The dress design is entirely my own and is a collective piece of my favorite things, I would love to see my design chosen to be created.

Thank you,
    Meredith Webster