Prom Dresses - Narrowing Down the Choices

Never have there been so many prom dresses, wedding dresses, cocktail dresses, etc. available to anyone with an Internet connection. But with so many choices, how do you know which is right for you, and how do you go about getting the right one?

Oddly the process is the same as it always was. Almost. In the "olden days," you went to a store, looked at what they had, tried on a certain percentage of them, and picked from there. Arriving at the perfect choice of the perfect dress, the perfect cut, the perfect color, and the perfect fabric was a simple choice, limited by stock on hand, or available in the store catalogs.

Now, the process starts online, where there are thousands of choices to be seen and evaluated. The funnel has simply gotten bigger on the large end, and now one is well served by going through one of the several sites that aggregate dress styles, designer collections, and dresses for different occasions, and begin to narrow it down from there. Once you have decided what general cut, fit, style, price range, and color you are after, you can be educated when you call or go into your local stores.

Once there, you can ask about specific designers, and if they aren't there, you can ask if they are available by catalog to the store, so you might bring one or two or three in and see for yourself which you like the best. From there, the "funnel" looks a lot like it always has. During the runup to prom dress season, you can see the same scene in almost every dress shop: a girl surrounded by a committee, sharing their opinions about which looks best, which is the nice color, etc.

And you'll find a dad sitting somewhere off in the corner, with a pained look on his face, and his hand on his wallet!

American Princess (http://dressnetwork.com/) sells prom dresses. Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer.