I was always told femininity was a one way street; quiet, delicate, soft, and beautiful. Growing up, I didn't fill that mold of traditional femininity; I was loud, bold, strong, but nonetheless, I was still beautiful. This dress is inspired by the struggles of fitting into traditional femininity and realizing that it is a giant highway system, where we get to choose which road to take. I choose to be feminine in loving being a woman and not letting anyone shame me or make me feel weak for being a woman. I chose a princcess knight because of how princcess are depicted in fairy tales, a damsel in distress. This princcess knows that being one doesn't make her weak and in need of saving, when she can do it herself. I took heavy inspiration from Joan of Arc, Nella the Princcess Knight, and Merida from Brave. I first started with the skirt, then the chest armor, shoulder armor, sword, cone hat, and finally, the patterns on the chest plate.
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Cailie
H.
13
Rolls
30
Hours
Inspiration:
The Inspiration is The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in Colombia. A beautiful cathedral made inside an active salt mine. It is both a tourist attraction and an active church. I started with a concept sketch of the design, then, through a series of tapping my dress form for the base, and building off it, I completed the dress.
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Ava
A.
15
Rolls
23
Hours
Inspiration:
Since I love the ocean so much, despite living in a desert, my main inspiration was a whale shark and the golden sunsets here in New Mexico. For the whale shark pattern, I hand drew it with a white paint marker and created a gold corset top in order to incorporate two things I was inspired by.
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Kaylee
S.
27
Rolls
59
Hours
Inspiration:
I didn’t draw or plan out my dress before I started creating it. Most people would consider that unconventional, but I work best by figuring things out as I go rather than following a detailed plan. Throughout the entire process, I relied on creativity and problem-solving to overcome challenges and bring my vision to life. Whenever I encountered an obstacle, I looked for different solutions and evaluated which approach would work best. One challenge was making the skirt appear as if it were flowing naturally. To solve this, I walked around craft stores searching for materials that could help and eventually discovered floral stems, which I attached to the ends of the skirt layers. The stems allowed me to bend and shape the layers, creating the flowing movement I had envisioned. Creativity helped me think outside the box and find solutions that traditional materials and methods could not provide, making the final design both unique and dynamic.
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KC
S.
9
Rolls
39
Hours
Inspiration:
When I was looking for ideas for this suit I was largely inspired by beaded suits with floral designs running across the whole ensemble. I wanted to incorporate a uniqueness into the suit and create something that someone could wear to prom wasn't simply a plain black suit.
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Madeline
D.
9
Rolls
12
Hours
Inspiration:
The inspiration for my dress was famous pop artists Keith Haring and James Rosenquist, their use of sharp lines and contrasting colors- respectively. Yet, I wanted to apply these techniques to a less colorful theme, to match my school's prom theme of a 1920's art deco with an optional masquerade element- which I chose not to partake in.
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Adam
L.
10
Rolls
40
Hours
Inspiration:
My outfit is inspired by my grandmother, who is 100 percent Polish. I wanted to honor
her because she has supported me throughout my life and school career. I am proud to
be Polish American! Given the unrest in the Ukraine, we worry about Poland and the
Polish people so near the conflict, along with the people of Ukraine. This is my tribute to
honor and remember Poland, during these difficult times.
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Zara
M.
6
Rolls
24
Hours
Inspiration:
In recent years, I have become fascinated with the rise of technology and specifically AI and its impact on creativity and art. This suit is a piece that contrasts human creativity with AI, and the colours and designs throughout the suit reflect that. I chose bright colours to make this piece very eye-catching! I included doodles on the pink side because they are a deeply personal and common form of human creativity, and contrasted this with the harsh lines of the circuit traces on the green side. A large explosion of passion is happening on the pink shoulder, falling all the way to the ground. This is a representation of the emotional output of human experience and creation, and pretty accurately describes how I felt making this suit. I'm interested to see how AI creativity evolves and its role in as well as its separation from human creativity over the coming years. I'm sure our perspectives will change, and maybe I'll have to make another suit one day that has a completely different message about human vs. artificial creativity!
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Hannah
R.
2
Rolls
10
Hours
Inspiration:
Grey duck brand duct tape represents the steel grey feathers of a robin. Orange mesh signifies the burnt orange of a robin. The accessories include a hat with a feather in the rim, a quiver of arrows, and a bow. This is a Robin Hood dress in the colors and style of a robin.
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Josephine
M.
27
Rolls
73
Hours
Inspiration:
Hey! My name is Josephine, and the theme of my dress is Sakura. That is the Japanese word for Cherry Blossoms. The blossoms are a beautiful and important part of Japanese culture. Sadly, they only stay in bloom for a few weeks each spring; a short, delicate existence. Because of this, Sakura symbolize the precious and fleeting quality of life. They remind us that nothing lasts forever, and while the future is important, we should cherish, enjoy, and be mindful of the things we have now.
One of my favorite Japanese traditions is Hanami, which literally means “flower viewing.” It is a centuries old tradition where the people gather for picnics under the Sakura and take time to pause, reconnect, and appreciate life.
My design also ties into my career dream of being a pediatric oncologist. I want to help children with leukemia to heal so that they can better enjoy the time they have. The best way to enjoy your life is by helping others to enjoy theirs. Helping others will bring you the most joy!
Additionally, the colors of my dress have meaning. I went with a color scheme of pink, white, and gold, which creates a simple and elegant look. The pink represents hope, white for clarity, and gold for enlightenment and illumination, all of which we receive from slowing down our lives.
I wanted my dress to be a beautiful reminder to slow down and cherish what we have now, symbolize my career dreams, and encourage people to help each other whenever they can! The attached video explains how I fabricated the dress.
Thank you so much for taking the time to view my creation!
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Moira
p.
27
Rolls
80
Hours
Inspiration:
When I was a young girl, I was captivated by a fairytale book about a magic garden and a
fairy princess. The story ignited my imagination and helped me see the magic all around
me, including all of the living things in my own garden. I often dressed up as a fairy and
loved playing in my own fantasy world. As I grew older, I felt a growing pressure to conform
to social norms and dress a certain way in order to fit in. With every passing year, the magic
was harder to find. The idea of dressing up like a fairy seemed more and more absurd the
older I got, but my imagination kept growing. What if there was a way to dress how I
wanted? What if I could find a way to enter the magical world of the fairies and be
celebrated instead of laughed at? My passion for design and sewing led me to find ways to
create magnificent dresses for different functions and helped me keep the magic alive. I
truly believe that magic is all around us, sometimes we just need to create it ourselves!
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Julianna
H.
14
Rolls
60
Hours
Inspiration:
This outfit took heavy inspiration from the Victorian period of the 19th century, as well as some of my other favorite fashion eras. The top was modeled after the bustiers that were popular in the Victorian era, specifically ones with different colored panels that resemble a heart shape. The sleeves are a combination of puff sleeves from the 19th century and bell sleeves from the medieval period in Europe. The skirt was modeled in part after a pannier, which is a cartoonishly wide skirt from the 18th century. The hat is a musketeer hat, which can be found in 17th/18th-century France as well as Mickey Mouse cartoons. The necklace was inspired by the Victorian cameo necklaces I saw while in Italy.
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Mylee
L.
10
Rolls
17
Hours
Inspiration:
I have always loved history and my favorite era has always been the Rococo Era. This dress is inspired by the saying from the most famous person of this era, Marie Antoinette. The saying (that she didn’t actually say) is, “Let them eat cake.” This has always stuck with me because it’s such a strange thing to make up. Marie Antoinette was very young and not even French and the people still hated her, knowing this has helped me understand that it’s not always my fault if someone blames me for everything going wrong in their life, they’re just going through something and don’t know how to handle it. Throughout the making of this dress I’ve learned more about Marie Antoinette and Rococo fashion in general because I wanted my dress to be as historically accurate as possible. Even though my dress isn’t as accurate as I wanted, it has allowed me to learn more about things I’m passionate about and practice something I love doing.
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Ryelle
R.
16
Rolls
41
Hours
Inspiration:
The inspiration that came to make this outfit is kind of funny. I went with my family to a Chinese restaurant and at that restaurant I got a fortune cookie, as you always should at Chinese restaurants. In that fortune cookie my fortune said, "You are the life of the party!" I hung this fortune up in my bedroom and every day I think about it. The day that I heard about this contest I decided that I should do it and I started brainstorming ideas. The best idea I came up with was a party theme and it came from the fortune inside my fortune cookie because I want to become the life of the party. Another thing I thought about as I made this was that each piece of confetti represents each person in the world. Some of the confetti pieces can be similar in ways but none of them are exactly the same. I also made this dress at first all white, which was pretty boring, but after I added the color from the confetti, my design came to life. It really showed my true colors and who I really am. This dress also resembles to party hard even in hard times. I loved making this dress and finding new ways to use the tape.
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Esmeralda
M.
23
Rolls
65
Hours
Inspiration:
My inspiration for this dress includes a touch of my culture and the style of quinceañera dresses. Ever since I was little, I've loved the color blue, butterflies, and flowers, which led me to incorporate all of this into my creation. This dress has over 200 flowers of different styles and shapes, and over 20 butterflies, which were made with the help of my parents! My accessories include a mariachi sombrero (the hat), which symbolizes my Mexican culture, of which I will always be proud of. I also decorated earrings and heels, incorporating flowers and butterflies, with a large white flower with gold-striped lines on the back of the dress. My dress includes all hand-cut designs, and represents lots of hours of patience and dedication. With this masterpiece, I was able to make my childhood dreams come true by creating a big, puffy dress that not only I designed, but also made out of Duck Tape. The flowers symbolize my change and growth as I enter a new chapter of my life, while the butterflies represent my gentle personality and my transition into college. I had a lot of fun making this dress, and I am ecstatic to share it with everyone!
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Aiko
T.
11
Rolls
27
Hours
Inspiration:
My inspiration for this dress was my love for the sport I compete in, which is crew, where I race in a boat with eight other people down lanes on the water. I’ve made the ribbing on the corset part of the dress to be representative of the lanes we race down, the waves at the bottom to represent the water we race in, and the lace up back to represent the boat I row in with all of my teammates.
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Cole
S.
14
Rolls
55
Hours
Inspiration:
I designed my prom tuxedo in red, white, and blue as a tribute to the 250th anniversary of the United States. I placed 250 stars throughout the whole outfit, with each star representing a year of America's history. It required careful planning, layering, and hand-cut details to bring it to life. This tux celebrates a major milestone in our nation's history, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
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hazel
h.
8
Rolls
22
Hours
Inspiration:
As someone who naturally leans toward English, taking AP Calculus this year has been an enjoyable way to push myself. After dedicating countless hours to the subject, it had effectively taken over my headspace. For my final project, I wanted to channel that academic intensity into something artistic, translating my coursework into a fully wearable garment constructed out of duct tape.