By Cheryl Conway
As many prom-goers know, a big part of attending the high school prom is the attire.
Shopping for that perfect dress is one of the highlights, but for this local senior, she wore the most one-of-a kind gown around.
At the Mt. Olive High School Senior Prom held on Thursday, May 23, Hannah Lake of Flanders was honored to wear a special hand-made gown designed by her first cousin, Genevieve Lake of Montville. An inspired young designer, Genevieve Lake is currently interning for Vera Wang in New York and plans to graduate from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising on June 24.
The 17-year old looked stunning in her mini corset, blue and champagne dress, with a long, princessy overskirt hemmed with pearls and flower appliques. She was most grateful for her cousin’s hard work and creativity on her special day.
“I was speechless when I first saw it,” says Hannah Lake. “I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Others agreed.
“A lot of people were completely shocked cause no one saw the dress,” says Hannah Lake. “Most people were absolutely in love with it just as much as I was.”
She knew from early on that she wanted her cousin to design her dress.
“We brought it up around Christmas-time because it’s been an idea our family has been thinking about since she made her own prom dress when she was a senior at Montville
High School,” says Hannah Lake.
Hannah Lake’s sister, Sofia Lake, also wanted her cousin to make her prom gown the year before but Genevieve Lake was overwhelmed at that time with design competitions and helping make her own sister’s two wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses, explains Hannah Lake.
One-Of-A-Kind Gown
“We worked together,” says Hannah Lake. “She sent me a couple of base designs; we pulled from those. I didn’t want a very tight dress; I wanted something flowy.”
When they first went shopping in New York in late March, Hannah Lake says she was looking for an emerald green fabric for her dress because she thought it was a “gorgeous color” that she had seen on a fashion show runway. But that all changed “until I saw the lace that made the bottom of the dress” in a light sky blue.
Cost for the dress came to be about $200, estimates Hannah Lake, as the lace cost $24 per yard; over-skirt was $8 a yard.
Arm wraps, pearls and light blue fabric made this a “wow” dress.
One aspect of the dress that made the design stand out were the lengthy arm wraps attached to the bodice of the dress that wrapped around Hannah Lake’s arms that put on-lookers in awe.
Another feature of the gown were the pearls sewn around the bottom of the over-skirt as a tribute to their late grandmother who loved the fine jewel, as well as the color blue.
“It was a lot of emotions in one moment,” says Hannah Lake, when she first put the dress on. She says she was sad that her grandmother- Ellie Lake- had passed in December 2018, but excited that it was “a one-of-a-kind, unique dress.”
Says Hannah Lake: “Grandma liked pearls. She had rings and broaches. She passed a lot of that jewelry onto us.”
The Lakes, first cousins since their dads are brothers, had an idea of what they were looking for when picking out the fabric and details of the gown.
“When we were looking for fabric, it seemed only natural that it would have pearls on it,” says Hannah Lake.
And there was no questioning the color blue.
“She always was very vocal” about the color blue, says Hannah Lake about her paternal grandmother. “Whenever we wore a blue dress she’d say it was her favorite. She was sure to tell us. She would knit sweaters for us that were blue; it was one of her favorite colors.”
Like wedding gowns, prom gowns are usually a one-time wear. But Hannah Lake hopes to re-purpose the gown for other occasions.
Since the over-skirt was not sewn into the dress, Hannah Lake says she can re-wear the lacy body mini dress. Currently see-through, she plans to have her cousin line the mini dress so she can continue to model it for future occasions.
“This is the first work I’ve modeled for her,” says Hannah Lake, who plans to attend Rutgers Honor College in New Brunswick in the fall for economics with a pre-med track and minor in international global studies.
Meet the Designer
Majoring in fashion design, 22-year old Genevieve Lake has had her designs in New York Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week and El Paseo Fashion Week.
Her internship with Vera Wang - which specializes in made-to-order and ready-made bridal wear and red-carpet attire- started in October 2018 in Los Angeles, Calif., while she was attending the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in California.
Photo credit: Photos by Sarah Lee
