Prom season seems to start earlier every year. If my memory serves, my prom was in May. Now I am designing prom dresses starting as early as, well, now! If your prom is in April, time to get shopping!

Last prom season, I had the good fortune to work with many lovely young women who had a vision for their prom. Here are three of the stories.

Jaylynn decided to have her prom dress created for her so she could have a unique design to rival red carpet gowns. She wanted form hugging look while not having a dress too tight to dance in. She also wanted a fun and frilly skirt that had a feathery feel.

I chose a wonderful formal crepe fabric that has some stretch. The collar, bust and neckline were adorned with venise lace

We made miles of black tulle ruffles sewn on vertically to resemble feathers. Hidden underall those tulle ruffles was a hoop petticoat that held the shape of her dress without getting in the way of her dancing feet.

Amari came to me with a specific design idea. I sketched her ideas, made a few suggestions and helped her select the lace and fabrics that brought her two piece look together. We chose a very thick guipure lace for the applique detail that was to grace the collar of her off the shoulder white satin bodice. Her very elegant gold satin ball gown skirt was asymmetrically appliqued with the same dimensional lace. For added pizzazz I sewed swarovski crystals and pearls to the lace. It was even prettier than whe could have imagined it.

We had two girls named Amari for custom prom last year. This Amari wanted a fit and flair style that showed off her curves. She also wanted silk roses on her skirt for a dimensional color splash.

I hand dyed hundreds of silk roses of various sizes in gradient shades of pink to fuschia to a pinkish purple. I’m not going to lie. I had fuschia-purple hands for a few days. I’m hoping that will teach me to wear gloves the whole time I’m dying stuff. After hours of sorting and mapping, I sewed each rose into place. The finished result was stunning.