Once a year for 18 years, the YWCA Bethlehem’s pop-up prom shop has appeared for a few tantalizing hours and vanished, like the mythical Brigadoon if it were a house of fashion.
The annual project of the women’s organization has outfitted numberless Lehigh Valley students for that singular rite of passage — the prom — offering dresses at a startling fraction of what they cost at retail shops.
Beaded or unadorned, sleeved or sleeveless, deepest blue or brightest pink — all carry the same price tag of $20, with jewelry, makeup and accessories thrown in for free.
It’s an astonishing bargain, given that a new dress from a higher-end store can cost $800 or more.
“Prom is so expensive even apart from what a dress costs,” said Kathy Cruz, the YWCA’s development director, as a couple of dozen young women browsed through scores of dress racks Saturday in a Bethlehem coworking facility called Venture X, where the pop-up shop has made its home in recent years.
Because costs beyond an outfit — tickets, flowers, transportation — can become prohibitive, the YWCA launched the shop where new or gently used dresses are available to any promgoer.
“We have individual donors and companies that donate either dresses or money,” Cruz said. “We usually offer about 500 dresses, plus the accessories and makeup.”
It gives students from financially disadvantaged homes the same chance as their classmates to arrive at prom in high style. The YWCA also accommodates students whose circumstances put even the $20 cost out of reach, said Delia Marrero, the organization’s executive director.
“It’s affordable and accessible,” she said, speaking over the dance music that enhanced the prom vibes of the 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. event.
“It’s out biggest volunteer engagement event of the year,” Marrero added, noting 38 people signed up to help — some from sponsoring businesses such as PPL and Crayola, others from Venture X, and the rest from the YWCA board and the community at large.
About 200 students a year get their dresses from the shop. It takes a day to set up the space with its racks, tables and small tents that serve as dressing rooms.
“It not only gives the dresses a second chance but the girls who can’t afford an expensive dress have a chance to go to prom,” said Natalie Lewis, a volunteer from Members First Federal Credit Union.
Mari Perez, who works for Executive Education Academy Charter School in Allentown, began volunteering for the shop last year after seeing an advertising flyer.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “A lot of these dresses still have the tags on them. They’re $400 and the kids pay $20. And there’s a lot of beautiful dresses out there, almost like wedding dresses.”
Lillian Waugh, a Wilson Area High School student preparing for senior prom, came to shop with her mother, Holly. She chose an elegant navy blue dress with a beaded design around the shoulders.
“I paid $100 last year,” Lillian Waugh said, recalling the price tag of her junior prom dress she bought from a retail shop.
She might have gone the retail route again — “I’d probably go around $200,” her mother said — but it seemed senseless to do that with the pop-up shop offering hard-to-beat variety and impossible-to-beat prices.
For some, a prom dress is a once-and-done purchase, never worn again.
Not so, said Waugh. “You could wear this for all kinds of stuff,” she said, reckoning the dress appropriate for weddings and other dressy occasions.
Alana Otero, a freshman at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, said she is attending prom with a friend who’s a senior.
“I only know about [the shop] because my aunt volunteers here,” she said, pleased to have found two pink dresses along with a bit of jewelry.
“It makes it easier and more affordable for everyone,” said Alana’s mother, Jacquelin Antongiorgi.
Alana’s aunt, Marilyn DeLeon of Bethlehem, is a PPL employee. She said watching the steady stream of students and their parents entering the shop and leaving with a just-right outfit has been gratifying.
“It’s great just to see their smiling faces,” she said.
Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com
