Naomi Fecher-Davis Capstone

I started my project wanting to help people be as excited for prom as I was. I did not want financial issues to stand in the way for anyone. Having the perfect dress is important to most girls, knowing how expensive dresses can be I wanted to find a way to ease that burden. I planned to collect formal dresses that people no longer wanted and were in very good condition. I would re-sell them for a much lower price, between $15 and $35 depending on the length and type of dress.

It was a slow start, it took me announcing it in classes and a few posts in the Advisory Memos to get the ball rolling. Once dresses were being donated, I created a website to display the dresses. I wanted everybody to be comfortable throughout the process. If someone wanted to donate anonymously they were able to do so. The website also enabled people to purchase the dresses anonymously.

I was able to achieve my part in offering this service to the SLA community. I think the timing of the start of my collection could have been better. I started too close to the dates of prom, by the time I had enough dresses to put up for sale many people had already purchased their dresses. I am keeping the dresses at school in hopes that next year someone will be able to use the basics I laid out and improve this project.

Annotated Bibliography

Best, Amy L. "Prom Night." Google Books. Routledge, 13 May 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <https://books.google.com/books?id=oVrsE9rGZnYC&pg=PT27&lpg=PT27&dq=economic+struggle+of+prom&source=bl&ots=Z63Jp3kmOO&sig=iN3vhohvpKOp7s2BdLOMRxF2Y-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq6_3K697KAhUGGD4KHc56D8UQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=economic%20struggle%20of%20prom&f=false>. This website talks about the economic struggle of prom. There is a great expense that comes with prom, it is one that many can not meet. This is a fact of life. This book breaks down what percentage of your or your parents pay check would have to be saved per paycheck in order to afford prom. There is no specific page numbers but there I used the section of the book called “Proms as Contested Sites: School and Youth Cultures. This book is a reliable source, it allowed me to look at research that other people had done and get the background information I need to complete my investigations.

Blakeslee, Sandra. "Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/clothes-and-self-perception.html?_r=0>. This is an article about the connection between what you are wearing and how you feel. It is proof that if you dress the part you are more likely to be believed. This article has helped me realize that it is important for every girl to feel beautiful on the day of their prom. If they feel like they are dressed to their best prom will be a more enjoyable. This is a reliable source because I am not looking for hard facts as much as opinions on how people feel about themselves and prom being such an important event in a high schooler's life.

EMMET, BORIS. “TRADE AGREEMENTS IN THE WOMEN'S CLOTHING INDUSTRIES OF PHILADELPHIA”. Monthly Review of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 6.1 (1918): 27–39. Web…<http://www.jstor.org/stable/41829256>. This source helped me see the more about how people are trading clothes in the city of Philadelphia. It is more general than my topic but I was able to pull out details that allowed me to see the ways women all over the city use stores, like thrift shops. This paper is directed on a specific organization that talks about this broad topic. It still allowed me to understand the needs that need to be met to have a thrift shop or something of the sort. This is a reliable source because it comes from a source that is widely known. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics and since I am using it for statistics on people working I think it is the perfect source.

Freeman, Hadley. "Why Everyone Deserves to Go to Their High School Prom." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 22 Mar. 2010. Web. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/23/high-school-prom-lesbian>. This source is an explanation as to why prom is so important to attend. There is a social dynamic at prom that won't be found on any normal day at school. This source has helped me in the thinking of my project. I realized that it is really important for social reasons to attend prom. Because it is something that is so dramatize in movies it is an event that is anticipated after for years by adolescents, when people are turned away from prom or do not have the opportunity to attend it takes a toll on their self esteem.

"How Much Will the Prom Cost?" Prom Guide. Promgirl, LLC, 2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://www.promgirl.com/prom-guide/costs>. On an average prom can cost on average $1,059. This website breaks down each of the prices to the most to least amount you could possibly pay for each part of prom. I then took the averages of all of those numbers to find the average amount of money a girl would have to pay for prom. This is a website that many use to buy their prom dresses. If there was an organization to know the most about prom, it would be them. It was very helpful for me to get a breakdown that allowed me to see all of the categories broken down. This source is a reliable one because the publishers are experts in this area.

LaGrave, Katherine. "Fashion: Why Is It Important?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 June 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-lagrave/why-is-fashion-important_b_1568465.html>. The huffington post is a website that is reliable for many opinions. In this article the author talks about the importance of fashion in her life. This is a feeling that is shared by many and is incorporated into many people's lives on a regular bases. This website helped me form my argument for my it is important to feel comfortable in your own clothes. Without that comfort it can be very hard to enjoy yourself. This source though it is an opinion piece was very helpful in “proving” my point in how important it is for adolescents to attend prom. It is an experience everyone should have and that is a point that came across in this article.

“Penny-club for Clothing Poor Children”. “Penny-club for Clothing Poor Children”. The Belfast Monthly Magazine 6.35 (1811): 442–443. Web…<http://www.jstor.org/stable/30072829>. This is a pdf of an article written about the organization Penny-club for Clothing Poor Children. It is a organization that gives poor children an encouraging place to be in return they have to pay one penny a month. This gave me the information I needed to know about poor children in america. It is important for me to know about the effect poverty has on young people before doing my project. I do not want to assume that all people living in poverty are living the same way. There is a sliding scale, I think that will help me a lot for my project.

Pickhardt, Carl E. "Adolescence and Senior Prom." Psychology Today. Sussex Directories, Inc., 4 May 2010. Web. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/201005/adolescence-and-senior-prom>. This website helped me to understand the other point of views on prom. I know to me it is one of the first times that I was able to dress up and be so elegant. I also wanted to get other people's views. From this article I can tell that prom is a coming of age celebration for many. Many years ago it might even have been a time to meet a long time partner. It is not so dramatic now but the same basics apply of wanting to go with a significant other. This is a reliable source that allows me to get information on the actually phsycology behind what people wear. The way people dress is not only important to them but the people around them because it improves the way they act.

“PRICES AND COST OF LIVING”. “PRICES AND COST OF LIVING”. Monthly Labor Review 10.5 (1920): 68–91. Web…<http://www.jstor.org/stable/41825548>. Before reading this segment of this book I knew that there was a minimum income that most people need to meet to be able to provide for them and their dependents. This is a cost that varies depending on the amount of people depend on them and who they depend on. I did not realize how high the cost of living is compared to the income people have. It is important to keep this in mind when thinking about prom. It is an extra, costly, cost. This source is a published book solely about the cost of living. It is important to know in my case because it allows me compare the prices of prom to the price of living.

Sola, Katie. "Please Say Yes: The Average Promposal Now Costs $324." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Apr. 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/average-promposal-cost_n_7103072.html>. Adding onto the average price of $1,059 you can add another $324 dollars onto that cost. That gives you a total of $1,383. This is a reliable source because the author has clearly done the research it needs to have the facts it is reporting on. I learned, from this source, that prom itself has a cost and it is usually more for females than males but in this instance it is the male that is spending an extra $350 to solly get a date to prom. These roles can obviously be reversed and be between the same sex, it is the fact that people are yet again adding another expense to an event that already cost near if not over $1,000.