prom dresses

By Joyce Szuflita
Picture this: Two 17 year old girls, size 2 skinny jeans, Forever 21 t-shirts, urban attitude, nerdy aspirations, who hate to shop - in the Macy's Prom Dress Section on the 4th floor.

Girl 1: "This is my worst nightmare!"

Girl 2: "Let's find the ugliest one"

I get a call from Silfath Pinto, a fashion stylist (with a lilting French accent) who has agreed to tackle the prom dress gauntlet.

"I am in the dressing room by Tahari. Just call my name and I will get you."

We wind our way out of the teen section, past the neon, 'cut to there' spandex and hideous fake movie star get ups, into the 7th Ave. side of Macy's - dignified (actually cute) dresses lining the isle. The line at the dressing room is LONG. I duck my head in and call Silfath's name and she sings "come in". I think, "excuse me, that is our Parisienne fashion stylist calling..."

The girls are apprehensive. This is some weird idea of mine - to get a strange 'professional' to help them find a dress. They think that she will pressure them to get something that is not them. They won't be able to say "no". Silfath had them send her an email list of links to pictures of dresses that they thought were okay. I told her our budget. We had to bring shoes in a backpack. It would be awkward. Also, she told us that it would be an hour, and I am having a hard time believing that is possible.

First off, Silfath is ADORABLE! She is so warm and approachable. They love her from the first moment. We turn the corner into the dressing room and it is full of the cutest cocktail dresses in the world, arranged by color. Our mouths hang open. This may work...

For the next hour they narrow the choices down, she talks about alterations and searches the internet for other sizes and colors. With her encouragement they try things that they never would have considered otherwise, and love them. We determine that they don't need to buy new shoes and she talks about hair and jewelry. At the end of the hour we have three dresses (they needed three) that are totally unique and so beautiful (and one is on super sale for $50!). There is a silver lace sheath that fits like a glove and makes her look like a fairy princess, a pale blue and gold brocade A-line with a beautiful princess neckline and a sleek white halter with a jeweled Byzantine collar. All of these dresses can and should be worn many times to receptions and cocktail parties way into my girls' twenties. There is no hint of hoochi, and they are age appropriate, unique and timeless. Did I mention that they look like a jillion bucks?

We even had time left over to have a bonding "girls moment" over salads. Thank you Silfath!

Check her out at Stylosophy.com.