Seneca student designs and makes her own dress for junior dinner and dance
St. Patrick’s Day was not the only celebration that occurred Friday, March 17. Seneca High School held its Junior Dinner Dance.
While many students like to go out and either buy or rent a dress, Halla Ribar, a 16-year-old, designed and made her dress for the event. The old Hollywood-style dress was a creation that took a lot of time to finish.
“I had been planning this for a year,” Ribar said. “I wanted to do something different. A girl last year made her dress and I thought it was really cool, so I wanted to make mine. I have my own design book that I got during a fashion field trip last year, and I designed it in there. We went out and bought fabric that looked similar, and we altered the pattern to be what I wanted.”
Ribar, who has aspirations to study either fashion design or interior design in college, did a couple of projects in the fashion design class at Seneca during her sophomore year. She will be taking the second part her senior year. She also received a lot of her creative ambitions from her mother Tara, who is a master seamstress at Seams Come True.
“Making dresses is a lost art,” Tara said. “When people hear that I am a seamstress, they want me to make items such as curtains or pillows. I think dress making was something that moms passed on to their daughters back in the day and it lost its way somewhere.”
“During Halloween, she would always make my costumes when I was small and I thought it was so cool,” Ribar said. “She was an artist when she was in high school. One time I saw her draw a face and I wanted to do that. I think it’s a cool experience to have the skills and such as well as a mom who can help you do it. Not only making a prom dress but any type of garment, it’s cool to say ‘I made this,’ and no one else has it because you made it.”
Her date to the dinner and dance, 17-year-old Addison Lee, liked the dress as well.
“It’s fantastic,” Lee said. “You always wonder how you get the store-bought look and it’s there. It’s crazy. It’s really great.”
“I think it’s a cool experience to have the skills and such as well as a mom who can help you a lot … It’s cool to say I made this and no one else has it because you made it.”
While Ribar enjoyed making her dress, do not expect to see another self-designed dress from her for her senior prom.
“I want to have the experience to go out shopping. This whole process was fun, but I want to go shopping,” she said.
