Promenading in Fashion

Fancy dresses, tuxedos, long flowing tresses, polished nails and flawless makeup will be the scene when Moorpark High School juniors and seniors get ready for prom Saturday.

The school will celebrate its prom at the Ronald Regan Museum on Saturday.

Prom, the last ultimate party before graduation, is a time to create one more memory; however, the road to prom, is often half the fun, as it includes clothes shopping, and, for females, getting makeup and hair done.

According to TeenVogue.com, this year’s trends include everything from pastels to floral prints to little black dresses and metallics.

Metallics are also making their way into shoe fashion this year, as are jeweled flats, heels and pumps, according to the teen fashion site.

Some girls were less concerned with what fashionistas tout, though, and had other priorities when shopping.

“I wanted something that would flatter,” said Raquel Hardy, a senior at Moorpark High. “I wanted something in black, but there wasn’t anything I liked so I went with red, which was my next choice, considering my skin tone.”

Hardy’s dress has one shoulder strap and an empire waist.

All year, Beverly Tingley, also a senior at the school, has had a picture of what she wanted her dress to look like so when she hopped online to look at dress styles, she was amazed to see something exactly like she pictured.

The dress was a $2,300 dress by designer Narciso Rodriguez, but in a stroke of luck, the site she found that pictured the design was the dress rental site renttherunway.com, which offered the blush-colored, V-neck and deep V-back gown for $300.

“I just stumbled on it on this website and it’s great because I couldn’t afford to buy the actual dress,” she said.

While many young girls looked at magazines and the Internet for fashion inspiration, some Moorpark High School senior boys looked for inspiration in other sources.

Moorpark High School senior Cheldon West said he found inspiration for his prom fashion from his favorite rapper, Tyga.

In his music video, “Down Low,” Tyga sports a white jacket with a black vest, shirt and pants.

West and his friends will take after Tyga and will wear a similar tuxedo on prom night.

West and other Moorpark High School males in charge of buying flowers for their dates luckily do not have to look far for a florist.

The Renaissance Group at Moorpark High School will be selling flowers on campus for students attending prom.

While the job of males tends to end once they have their tuxedos and corsages in order, females have a lot more to worry about.

Another essential part of prom, for females, is choosing the perfect hair style and make-up and many Moorpark salons offered specials for students attending prom.

Eudoia Salon, for example offers a hair and makeup package that lasts about one and a half to two hours and a lot of Moorpark High students made appointments, Ashley Parr, who works at the salon, said.

Stylists there didn’t know how the students were planning to wear their hair yet, but both Tingley and Hardy are planning to wear their long hair down.

“I’m going to wear it down and wavy and sort of old-fashioned,” said Tingley, who hoped for a style to match her 1920s-inspired dress.

Even nails have fashion trends and this year, simple seems to be the way to go, said Jennifer Tu, owner of Jennifer’s Hair and Nails on High Street.

“Most girls are getting regular manicures or French manicures,” she said, comparing this with previous years when customers would ask for long acrylic nails with colorful graphic designs or flowers.

She said even the girls who are getting acrylic nails are getting pink and white nails to look as natural as possible.

The salon owner said she thinks this may be a trend dictated by the economy.

No matter which dress, hair style or shoes high schoolers choose, most of those involved in helping them look their best agreed what’s most important is to feel happy and comfortable with it. Your best look is always one that includes an illuminating smile.

Prom is a no-media-allowed event, so Patch won't be there Saturday, but we'd love to see your fun prom pictures. Send them in to rebecca.whitnall@patch.com to be included in a prom photo gallery.