Dive into your closet and dig out your fanciest duds because they’ll be hitting the runway at the Parties and Prom: Past and Present Fashion Show in Wellesley this fall.
Spearheaded by Wendy Richardson the fashion show will highlight prom dresses, mother of the bride dresses, and other special event clothes from as far back in time as possible, right up to the present.
Funds raised will go toward the Wellesley North Easthope Fall Fair and the Wellesley accessible playground. They held a similar show, but for wedding dresses, back in 2010.
“The wedding dress show was such a hit,” Richardson said. “I personally love to see the girls in their prom dresses. I have three daughters. I just loved prom, the limousines and the girls get all dolled up and the boys get all dolled up and everybody looks fun and fantastic.”
They had 51 dresses at that show and she’s hoping to get some 50 this time around, too. That means they’re on the hunt for any kind of fancy dresses from any era. And you don’t have to be from Wellesley Township, she added.
“The girls are going into prom this Thursday for Waterloo-Oxford. One of the girls is handing out flyers, so hopefully they’ll contact me because I want their dresses,” Richardson said.
They’ve just started collecting for the October show, but already she’s had women offering up their dresses from a variety of decades. They can showcase any dresses they get and it looks like there will be quite a few.
“I would have thought that the ’40s and ’50s would have been hard,” Richardson explained. “I was thinking more it might start with the ’70s and up, but since Diane Peters came to me and said she’s got some from the ’40s and ’50s, I thought ‘fantastic.’”
The dresses from Peters and prom dresses from this year will be a good base to grow on. She also plans to get their past fair ambassadors involved, whether it’s supplying dresses or modeling them, or both.
“I really hope that people who own the dresses, especially the young girls, I’m hoping that they will all model their own dresses. But some are shy about that so we’ll get models for them,” Richardson said.
She notes she hopes new people to Wellesley will come out to the show and bring their dresses forward, to help them get more involved with the community.
The current and new fair ambassador will be the emcees for the show. There will also be vendors around the perimeter of the community centre, just like at the wedding show. She’s had this fashion show in the back of her mind for a while, and she figures if she wants to see it other people will want to too.
“The wedding dress show was great because you’re getting your local fashions,” Richardson said. “And we actually had one from 1843 and then it jumped up to 1910 and it had some from every decade on. It was a lot of fun so we think this is going to be a lot of fun too.”
Between Wellesley Idol and the fair ambassador competition, Richardson spends a lot of time working with teenagers – something she enjoys. She says many of the older dresses will have to be modeled by them because the dresses made before 1950 are typically very small.
“It’ll be interesting to see how the different trends go. Long, short, plain to really fancy,” Richardson said.
The funds raised for the fair will go toward things like children’s entertainment, prizes, and posters. She notes all ages are getting involved, with children making centerpieces for the show.
“I just hope that they have as much fun at this event as at the wedding show,” Richardson said. “We’ve been hearing back from that for four years now that people really enjoyed that. I’d really like to bring the younger generations into this, not just the teenagers, but their mothers.”
The show goes on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Wellesley Community Centre. Tickets are $15 and anyone interested in donating dresses and/or modeling them can contact Richardson at wrichardson@bell.net or 519-656-2961.
