starburst prom dress

-- Nina Sysko, Lewiston High School. Flip-flops sold separa

Holy smokes. So, there's this teenager in Wisconsin who has this mom who likes alliteration and talks about "persistence" and "perfection" a whole bunch and spent SIX YEARS weaving Starburst wrappers into a prom dress for her daughter who plays soccer. Naturally, she bought the candies 20 pounds at a time, with five failed attempts. THOUSANDS of teeny, tiny multicolored squares were folded eight times before they were fine enough to be woven into this knee-length number (LOLOLOL what if maxis were really in that season, there would've been DRAMA). The last fold had to be so precise that tweezers were used. It was that intense. Anyway, the mom is no stranger to PERSISTENCE and PERFECTION, so she made not only a purse but also shoes and a matchy-poo vest for her daughter's date, who is a very patient teen who knew from jump street that he "had no choice."

While I applaud this mother's tireless and valiant efforts and adore the DIY spirit behind making your own dress or flipping and reversing some other CRAPPY dress and making something MAGICAL (also, I am a huge fan of duct tape prom, remember duct tape prom?), I am worried about this amount of labor going into ONE NIGHT when there is such a thing as a WEDDING to consider in her daughter's future. I'm just saying, she might not be doing such a good job at managing expectations, but what do I know? I am a terrible curmudgeon who is not seeing the forest for the trees. Maybe I'll feel differently when I have a daughter. I just hope this mom is getting a jump on making her baby girl's wedding dress NOW because who can say how long that will take.

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The boyfriend. Who, to his credit, is pretty cute for getting into his lady's theme. Oh, and the entire family lucked out since the prom theme for that year was "Candyland." Well, played everyone.

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Peeptoes. I do love the rickrack effect on the soles. It looks really difficult. Man, I can imagine mom now, wearing a jeweler's loupe under a lamp into the wee hours of the night. DEDICATION, MOM! (*note to self: call own mom).

Photo: Courtesy of KARE 11

A clutch. Naturally, can't have anything detracting from the main show.

Photo: Courtesy of KARE 11

Tiers! So on-trend for any year. Also, note that there is in fact stretchy fabric upon which the wrappers were overlaid. Mom didn't actually shred the wrappers into strips to WEAVE everything. Something to think about for next year! KIDDING.

Photo: Courtesy of KARE 11