Do you know what you’re wearing to Homecoming? Do you even know where to start looking? With the Homecoming season upon us, it’s time to think about what to wear. With an overwhelming amount of stores, both online and in-person, it can be hard to find what you’re looking for. On top of that, it can be hard to determine what is popular and what is best for you. In attempts to counteract that overwhelming feeling for a fun night, your guides right here have researched the most popular and trending dress styles and colors, as well as where the best places to shop for them are.
In the interest of capturing the most popular styles, we surveyed the first result websites under Homecoming Dresses: Lulu’s, Lady Black Tie, Dillards, Windsor, and Revolve. By sampling the first 20 dresses in each of these shops, we were able to tally up some key characteristics, like length, color, sleeve type, price, color variability within designs, and if the dresses were sparkly. Along with determining the most popular looks, we also sampled the prices of these dresses to figure out what website sold its dresses for the cheapest price.
When it comes to dress length, short is undoubtedly the winner. While Homecoming dresses are traditionally shorter, it was still surprising how few midi or long dresses we encountered. In addition to that, all of the longer dresses had some sort of slit or cutout.
Along with short dresses being commonplace, spaghetti straps were also popular, appearing in roughly half of the sampled dresses. When it came to colors, blue, red, black, green, and pink dominated almost 75 percent of all dress colors, with purple and gold trailing right behind.
On the other hand, very few of the Revolve dresses had any customizability, and not a single Lady Black Tie dress had any options.
Revolve was also significantly more expensive than any of the other sites, with its average dress price being $335, as opposed to the average range of $60-$70 for other dresses.
While Revolve does have beautiful dresses, because of its slim variety and costly dresses, searching for your dress on Revolve will likely lead you to dead ends. Lady Black Tie and Dillards were not really standouts, both were solid but not exceptional. They were both slightly on the pricey side, although Dillards was a little more promising with many color options for its dresses. On the other hand, Windsor is a clear standout. It has plenty of sparkly and non-sparkly dresses, lots of variety in color and sleeve type, options for customization, and even a few dresses with subtle patterns and designs. To top it all off, their dresses are the cheapest with an average price of $48, excluding discounts, and they have both an online option and an in-person shop at the Lehigh Valley Mall — perfect for last-minute shopping. Lulus is also an excellent place to shop, with the most customization and sales across the board, and has a very classic yet fun overall style.
Instead of buying a dress from a chain this year, if you’d like to check out and support some local small businesses we’ve compiled a list of second hand stores and boutiques where you’ll be sure to find a beautiful and unique dress.
If you’re looking for a long colorful dress Le Femme Boutique is a perfect place to start your search. The boutique has nine stunning collections from ALYCE Paris, a collection of short sparkly cocktail dresses, to Dave and Johnny, a collection of long prom dresses, Le Femme Boutique has a great selection!
Nothing is more fun and trendy than thrifting.
Deja Vu resale boutique is a great resale boutique that’s close and local. It’s a great place to find a one of a kind dress! Friends boutique isn’t exactly where you’d get a dress, but you can get beautiful vintage jewelry and accessories.
While trendy dresses can be beautiful, remember to always wear something that represents you and what you like! At the end of the day, it’s your dress — whatever you pick and wherever you get it, what matters is that you find the right dress for you.