In my neighborhood vintage clothing store, shopping for prom dresses is well underway. With the downturn in the economy, the relative bargain of a vintage dress looks good to mothers who might otherwise turn to the mall. High school girls seem to like vintage dresses, too. A few want classic 1950s prom dresses with big, tulle skirts, and there will always be fans of the Audrey Hepburn little black dress, but 1980s prom dresses are astonishingly popular. That’s right — shiny mauve, electric blue, and shimmering emerald green dresses with a smothering load of ruffles and poufs are flying out of the store as fast as the owner can bring them in. Which brings me back to my own 1980s prom, forever linked in my mind with Babe Eau de Toilette.

I didn’t wear a store bought dress to my prom. Instead, my grandmother ran up some yellow calico and dotted Swiss lace on her sewing machine, and I went to the prom dressed like the lovechild of Little House on the Prairie and Moulin Rouge. Still, I thought I looked pretty good, especially compared to the Japanese exchange student, Yumi, who lived with us. My grandmother had also sewn Yumi’s dress, not realizing that orange wasn’t her best color. Yumi had put on some weight adjusting to American food and looked something like a chiffon pumpkin…

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