It sounded innocuous enough. Everyone loves a vintage photo (as evidenced by our popular throwback photos of holiday pics and maternal style, and look through fashion week parties over the years), so let’s ask an ensemble of cool people to share their high school ball photos.
What ensued was a turbulent mix of emotions, highs and lows, and much self-reflection on how the choices made in high school do or don’t reflect the adults we've turned into.
There were those with fond memories but no photos, and those for whom the mere mention of ball season was traumatic. Then there were those who saw glimpses of the adults they would become in the choices they made, while others saw young versions of themselves conforming to societal norms that they are now happily able to turn against.
From suburban dressmakers to mall purchases, and a whole lot of hair, corsages and gloves - enjoy our past presented as both entertainment and an anthropological study into youth culture over the years.
Kathryn Wilson, designer
My first school ball dress (in 1995) was in burgundy stretch velvet with bell sleeves and made by one of my mum's best friends. I loved it, and the hilarious 'up-do' with some strips of hair curled either side! Obviously the choker necklace was a look at the time too. The next year (1996) was very ‘90s, again: black and floor-length from David Pond with crossover straps at the back and long gloves.
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Jessica Palalagi, general manager of the Arts Foundation
Fifth form ball, it's 1994. I’ve opted for a tight spiral perm, not sure who did my “makeup” and this dress that I can’t recall where I got the inspiration from, but the paleness and the sleeves are giving very Interview with a Vampire. And well, I did love that movie. The dress itself was really too big but my dressmaker in Mt Roskill said I was fat and this would help me feel better. Lol. Also, love that I am posing next to the hoover.
Tyson Beckett, Stuff and Ensemble style reporter
The tricky thing about balls is that they're a milestone fashion moment that occurs at a time of your life that you're most likely to just want to fit in and least likely to have figured out your own individual style yet.
I think (hope) that this has changed but I'm sure there are many people that look back on their high school selves and are deeply uncomfortable with the choices they made and the clothes they wore in and not draw attention to yourself. My school ball was in 2008, peak Twilight era, and one look at the expression on my pale overpowered face and the slinky dress I'm squeezed into should let you know it was a deeply weird time that neither Kristen Stewart or I care to revisit.
Tanya Barlow, makeup and nail artist
I remember feeling so self conscious leading up to the prom, not being able to purchase a cheongsam off the rack like most girls. I went to Shenzhen to get a custom-made dress. For some reason, I was very heavily into square necks, bell sleeves and the medieval fantasy. I asked for a “galaxy” in rhinestones across the dress and sleeves. It was ill-fitted, dragged on the floor and covered me up almost entirely. Looking back at these photos I can’t even remember what shoes I wore cos you can’t see them!
I was very much in my blue era, so I had blue streaks in my hair (two bits pulled to the front, curly up-do in the back), blue contact lenses, blue nail polish and shimmery blue eyeshadow and eye gems. Not to mention barely visible brows and a sticky gloss. Finished off with a tiara, naturally. A monochrome moment, ok!
The year before, I’d worn a suit to the year 11 formal because I thought it was cool (no photo evidence of this, I’m afraid), so I was very nervous about wearing this heavy frock.
The night is a blur. It was held at a hotel ballroom in the city with a vaguely ‘under the sea’ motif that had nothing to do with our prom. I remember awkwardly holding a rose all night, my hands sweaty. Singing a cover of Robbie Williams’ Heaven from Here with my best friend Cheryl. Our drama class getting together and posing awkwardly for group photos. Seeing hip flasks surreptitiously sipped from silver clutches with butterfly motifs. Lots of hair product and cologne and butterfly clips. Everyone was so spiky and shiny.
I have a fuzzy memory of going out afterwards, trying my first tequila sunrise and doing karaoke, and watching my friend pee in a bin on a ramp at the train station and laughing till I cried. I remember thinking I MUST take Panadol before going to bed that night or else! I wasn’t hungover, but was strangely disappointed I wasn’t.
Doris de Pont, founder of the New Zealand fashion museum
I do know exactly what I wore to the two school balls I went to back in 1970 and ‘71 - but sadly I don't have any photos of me in my self-made hot pants and full-length coat with hood nor my next creation, a purple watermark taffeta dress that lost its watermark patterning in the rain on the way home.
Juliette Hogan, fashion designer
I went to Rosehill College in Papakura, and my first ball was in my form year (1996). I had already learnt to sew by then and had constantly made dresses for myself and friends quite comfortably. When I suggested to Mum and Dad that I wanted to make my ball dress they were ok with that. I remember going out shopping for the fabric – I wanted a chocolate brown velvet. It was of its time back then and the colour (not the silhouette or fabrication) has made its way back into current fashion and would work back in well with our current collection.
The fabric was $30/m from Centerpoint Fabrics and I remember Mum feeling really nervous about me sewing with such an expensive cloth (we needed three metres) and that I might screw it up. I didn’t, and velvet is really hard to sew. I remember asking Mum to press the lining when it was finished and unfortunately the iron was too hot and melted a huge hole in it. It was on the inside though so didn’t matter.
I made the shell choker myself (of course), from shells that I had collected at Woolleys Bay. I have no idea where the black gloves were from but I assure you they were a thing at that time.
I wore the dress the following year at a Knox Ball at Larnach Castle (my sister was studying in Dunedin at the time) and I stood far too close to one of the open fires and melted the velvet, but didn’t go up in flames thankfully. It was a great dress with loads of good memories, I loved it.
Eda Tang, Stuff Pou Tiaki reporter
I probably kept a Pinterest board of "wedding updos" for at least a month leading up to my first ball. Looking back, I was pretty self-sufficient given that I'd chosen and bought my dress from Taobao with my own money that I'd earned through teaching the recorder to local primary school kids.
I did my own hair and makeup with a combination of well-expired products I'd been using for stage makeup, impulse drug store purchases, and some things I'd managed to steal from my mum's collection over the years. I don't look terrible but also I could have learnt about flashback makeup and using a contour palette that I didn't somehow come into possession of after some show I did. RIP skin. But happy memories.
Liam Sharma, brand consultant and editor
I don’t remember anything about my first school ball. I think I got kicked out. We drank goons in a public park before and I have a faint memory of spewing somewhere while I was walking to the ball. I would have been 16 here, I think.
Zoe Walker Ahwa, Ensemble co-founder and Stuff style editor
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I looked through old photos of myself at my three school balls and thought: I was gorgeous. I wish I’d realised that back then. Instead I was a very shy nerd with zero confidence - I refused to have an official photo taken at the seventh form ball, and every photo my parents took at home beforehand features an awkward, pained expression. But I can see now that these were the years where I was developing a point of view when it came to how I wanted to dress and express myself through fashion.
I wore the same dress, a simple purple floor-length gown brought in Australia, to my first two balls, and I love that teenage me didn’t buy into the ‘buy something new, wear it once’ mentality. I styled it differently each year: hideous stiff curly hair as a 15-year-old, and an even more hideous crimped, spiky up-do when I was 16 (plus opera gloves and a small bump from my belly-button piercing; it was 2002!).
I think my seventh form dress was from Principals, and it would have been bought at the Henderson, New Lynn or St Lukes mall. Midi-length, full-skirted with tulle detailing at the bust - basically a Prada dress, but made from cheap polyester. I wore it with these little silver strappy mules that today would be at home in a Karangahape Road vintage store and, again, a hideous hairdo.
I still have both of my dresses, stored away somewhere, and a scrapbook I made with photos and other memories. I printed out Q&As about the night for my friends to answer, with questions like, “Who did you think should have won a prize for being the most original/daring with their outfit?” Clearly I was a nerd, who was destined to become an editor.
Anjali Burnett and Rachel Easting, designers and founders of Twenty-seven Names
Let me set the scene: it's 1999 in Wellington. Fifth formers have no rights, and by this I mean, we were not invited to the school balls or permitted outside school break privileges. In my misguided anarchist state, I took matters into my own hands and made my first foray into entrepreneurship by throwing the Bomb Bubble Ball (my budding marketing skills really playing for keeps with that spectacular ‘branding’).
Somehow, we managed to rent a bar, which was in possession of a bubble machine – hence the genius name. We made tickets and slung them for a cool $20 a pop. On the night, the bubble machine was out of action, and a toilet seat was broken by someone trying to open a bottle of wine, but otherwise the rest just really fell into place. That is, except for my outfit…
Buckle up for a little back story: previously that year a 'P Party' was thrown by one of the rich girls (don't worry, it wasn't that sort of party). The brief was to dress up as something beginning with P. I, again on my anarchist tip, decided to dress up as a (wait for it) PENIS. I know, I know, I'm not making this up. I fashioned a full-length boob tube out of beige mesh, trimmed it with fake black fur, and then topped the look off with a floor length white fishnet condom. On the other hand Rachel, as per usual, understood the assignment and dressed up as a Princess; she really radiated that night. The Princess and the Penis, a tale as old as time.
For my Bomb Bubble Ball look I decided to play it a little safer than my crafty phallic moment, and so I appropriated Rachel’s princess vibe with a Renaissance Faire rental number. I remember matching the look with my white Duffs and pale blue eyeshadow - I don't really feel like I pulled it off, I think I was going through some stuff.
Rachel wore a knit dress from Hound Dog, and those classic ‘90s shoes that made you feel like a professional at 16-years-old while you were re-stocking at Pumpkin Patch. Again, she looked stunning.
I am so sorry, but no photo records exist of me dressed as a penis. But I am happy to say our DIY Ball was a success: I made enough money to buy a shockproof Discman.
Rebecca Wadey, Ensemble co-founder
Ball season was a huge deal growing up in Hamilton and in my sixth form year (1992) I was dating the head boy of Hamilton Boys High which meant we got invited to every school ball in the region, much to the envy of my friends. Sadly, we broke up before the Girls High ball. The official photos of all balls were placed in the window of the local photo shop in Centreplace; hordes would be gathered around the window every afternoon through ball season, and you could order your own copies.
I can’t remember anything about this look and it’s the most un-me outfit I’ve ever seen. I suspect my parents made me borrow a dress. And I suspect I went with something very basic because my BFF and I were left traumatised after our boyfriends asked for spare fabric from our dresses so they could get matching bow ties and cummerbunds. (My boyfriend, the aforementioned head boy, ended up with a custom turquoise paisley bow tie and cummerbund that he paired with the mustard-coloured Barkers suit he travelled to Auckland for. This may or not be why we were no longer together by the time my ball rolled around. Although it’s very telling I remember such detail about his outfit and none about mine).
The other photo, of me in the red dress, is from the Hamilton Girls High ball that same year. I loved this dress so much, and still have it. I designed it myself and it was based on the grey dress that Demi Moore had recently worn to the Oscars. This was pre-Internet of course so I must’ve cut photos out of magazines and taken them to the local dressmaker, after going with my mother to Barker & Pollock to choose the fabric.
I remember the dressmaker being quite unimpressed that I’d gone with chiffon rather than Demi’s heavy fabric, but I’ve always preferred an A-line to a sheath and it worked perfectly. By seventh form, we were all in black borrowed dresses, mostly worn with chokers, and we ditched the boys in favour of taking female friends from other schools.
