High School Fashion Student Makes Own Gold Prom Dress

This Loftier School Pupil Made Her Own Prom Clothes From Scratch and Left Her Classmates Stunned Apr 11, 2020

17-yr-old Ciara Gan from the Philippines was in quite a pickle. She needed a gown for the prom, only didn't take one. And so, inspiration struck, and she combined her love for arts and crafts with her eye for fashion to create her very own graduation ball apparel, and netizens went crazy over it!

Everyone Has Expectations Virtually Prom

There's one affair that hasn't changed since the outset senior prom ever, and that'due south everyone's expectations. Students want their prom to be the virtually memorable event of their lives, and 17-year-old Ciara Gan was no exception.

She Asked for Help With Her Prom Apparel

Going to prom is expensive. There are tons of things similar limos, corsages, and the oh-so-important prom dress that are but so pricey. But Gan, who lives in Taguig Metropolis in the Philippines, wanted her big night to exist perfect. Then she turned to a seamstress to design a apparel for her in January 2019. But then, she wished she hadn't.

They Didn't Like How the Clothes Turned Out

Gan and her mother Maricel reached out to someone to brand the gown for her, but the dress didn't turn out the style either of them had envisioned it. So, they decided to try a different approach that would cease up making Gan internet famous.

They Decided to Practise It Themselves

Instead of hiring someone else to make her gown, Gan and her mother decided to practise it themselves. They started from scratch and had their piece of work cutting out for them. Merely it wasn't the showtime time Gan had worked on a prom dress.

She Had Attempted a Sewing Project Before

Gan had tried her hand on another sewing project during her junior year. "The concluding time was prom during my inferior year, where I had to redo my apparel's whole skirt in two days and stick over 200 crystals on it!" she told TODAY. But her senior prom wearing apparel was a bigger project and although she had more fourth dimension to brand it, it was still a major undertaking.

They Sewed Each Panel of the Skirt

"For the whole of March, my mom and I made (and) sewed each console of the skirt one past one," Gan told TODAY Style via email. Merely that was just a fraction of what they had they do.

They Had to Keep the Clothes in Shape

The immature aspiring designer used xiii yards of emerald satin cloth to make the gown, but she used other materials like crinoline and rigilene boning to maintain the shape of the dress, and that wasn't even the hardest part.

The Dress Had to Represent Her Personality

One time the dress was washed, Gan used her creative talent to give the gown a look that would represent her personality. Unfortunately, she was missing one important ingredient, and she had to discover a substitute right away.

She Was Missing Something Important

Gan didn't take any fabric paint and then she had to paint the flowers on her gown by hand using acrylic paints. This took her 5 days to consummate, only she didn't cull the flowers at random. She wanted her gown to be extra special...

She Avoided Using Basic Roses and Flowers

Gan got the idea to paint orange flowers on her clothes from the book "Tiger Lilly" by Jodi Lynn Anderson. "I strayed away from basic roses and dainty florals because although they're pretty, they don't reflect my personality," she told Buzzfeed News. "I honey the vibrancy of loud colors like orange and light-green—they speak more nearly who I am." But that wasn't the only thing she did to add together some pizazz to her clothes.

She Embellished Her Dress With Crystals

Every bit a senior, Gan knew that this was her last prom e'er and she needed to make an impression. So, she decorated her wearing apparel with Swarovski crystals. Past the fourth dimension it was all set up and done, she had a dress that would become the talk of the boondocks.

Information technology Was a Calendar month-Long Projection

"It took me about a whole calendar month to make the whole matter," Gan told TODAY Style. This included the time she spent designing information technology, as well. Merely it was more just a prom dress to her. Information technology held a special meaning.

The Dress Tells a Very Personal Story

"My dress tells a very personal story about the things I concord shut to my heart — lilies, the color dark-green, painting, and creating new things," she added. Only there was a very magical reason she chose dark-green for her prom wearing apparel.

The Color Reflects Her Dear for Potter

"Every bit nerdy equally it may sound, I chose emerald light-green because I'm an gorging Potterhead and a proud Slytherin," she told Buzzfeed News. But she didn't demand Dumbledore to teach her how to sew.

She Relied on YouTube Tutorials to Teach Her

When INSIDER asked Gan how she learned to design a dress, she replied, "YouTube tutorials. I would picket videos on dress-making and sewing!" But when she shared how she fabricated her prom dress on Twitter, the mail went viral.

Her Twitter Postal service Went Viral

On Apr 8, 2019, Gan posted a couple of photos of her prom wearing apparel and wrote, "I painted over 80 flowers, sewed, and stoned my dress with my mama and designed the whole thing myself." And only like that, she received over 380,000 likes and over 81,000 retweets. But she couldn't accept washed any of it without the help of someone special.

Her Mom Is Her Best Friend

Getting to clothing one of her ain creations was definitely a plus, but working on the dress with her mother was the real care for. "My mom and I are best friends. Nosotros work on DIY projects together all the time," she told TODAY. "Just seeing how supportive my mom is fills me with gratitude." Her classmates were pretty blown away, too.

Gan Had Kept the Project a Secret

Gan didn't tell any of her classmates that she was making her own dress right abroad. So, they were very impressed by how amazing she looked when she showed up to prom in her self-made gown. She even knocked the socks off of one detail classmate.

Her Classmate Did a Double Take

"When I starting time showed upwards at the issue identify, my ane classmate took a double take to make sure what he was seeing was correct! He told me, 'I idea it was printed!'" she told Buzzfeed News. And now everyone's asking to run into more than of her talent.

People Are Requesting Her Art

The attention Gan received has opened the door for other art projects. In fact, she's gotten a ton of requests for purchasing her artwork, which has really touched her eye. She'due south grateful for all the people who capeesh her talent, and she'due south open to taking on other projects.

She Advertised Her Artistic Skills

Gan really needed the money for her summer after graduation, so she accepted diverse art projects in exchange for a commission. She also posted tweets where she advertised her skills as an creative person and as a designer. And so she had the opportunity to brand another dress, just not for herself.

She Painted Another Dress

Gan was commissioned by someone all the style in Hong Kong to paw-paint a wedding gown the same mode she did her prom clothes. The only difference was that this dress was red instead of green. But her former dress was pretty famous, too.

The Prom Apparel Was a Major Consequence

Gan'southward prom apparel was put up for display at Aspace'southward May Day event in 2019 in Makati, Philippines, and remained there until June 14 of that twelvemonth. In this cursory period, people got to see the clothes upward close and personal, and were convinced that this was just the starting time for Gan.

They Were Certain She Would Major in Style

People were and so impressed with Gan's dress that they were sure that she was going to take a career in way and bring her unique talent to the fashion industry. Simply when they asked her if that was the programme, she gave them a response that left them stunned.

She Wants to Bring Scientific discipline and Art Together

"I program to pursue a degree in a scientific discipline-related grade," she told INSIDER. "I am in beloved with both the arts and sciences and I want to incorporate the two different things with each other. I want to bring art into scientific discipline, or vice versa." Whatever she comes up with next will undoubtedly exist as spectacular equally her prom gown.