A California teen has won $10,000 in a scholarship contest for a prom dress made entirely from 14 rolls of duct tape.
“Besides the financial aspect of it, I also wanted to challenge myself into creating something I’ve never done before,” the teen told The Epoch Times.
Speaking of the inspiration behind her dress, the teen said that she was exploring different ideas on Pinterest as well as looking back at some memories when she suddenly had the idea that she wanted to create something of a vintage style.
“I was thinking back to the field trip I took to the Getty Museum in January, and I was inspired by the Rococo style, like all the gold in the libraries, so I knew I wanted to make my dress elegant,” the teen said.
Ms. Torres, who has never made a dress before, enlisted the help of her crafty mom to finalize a design. It took “a lot of trials and errors,” but eventually the pair settled on using a wax paper that allowed them to remove and reapply the duct tape to achieve the look Ms. Torres wanted.
“Tape is not flexible, it’s not like fabric; so it’s not easy to move it around or manipulate it, so it was a challenge,” Ms. Torres said, crediting her mom’s stencil-cutting machine, Big Shot, for helping them cut through the thick, heavy-duty material.
“[W]e tested it out and it actually worked, so that’s what we used for the majority, like the trimming on the top of the sleeves, the necklace; it was a big win for us,” she said, adding, “[My mom makes] cake toppers, invitations, party decorations, different things like that, so we had a lot of different machines or equipment available that maybe other people in the contest didn’t have.”
Ms. Torres estimates that she worked on her gown for a total of 120 hours, finding time around her high school classes and during the weekends to bring her vision to life. Once the dress was finished, the teen and her mom took advantage of a sunny California day for an outdoor photoshoot before submitting photos to the contest.
Ms. Torres was blown away to receive a grand prize in the “dress” category.
“I was a little nervous about the contest; you never know who’s going to win,” she said. “The other girls had equally amazing dresses, so it was an honor to be the one that won the contest. It was a lot of support from my family. ... [My friends] were equally excited. They were like, impatient; they wanted to know as soon as possible!”
Ms. Torres, who plans to use her $10,000 prize money toward college dorm expenses and to buy a new laptop, is proud to represent the Mexican/Hispanic community with her win.
“I had some people message me ... on Instagram or other social media, saying that they feel really proud that I’m representing the community in such a big way,” she told The Epoch Times. “I just feel really honored to win.”
