Posted on 05/16/2006 8:21:20 AM PDT by SmithL
It was a typical scene on prom night. A boy, stiffly dressed in eveningwear, waits it out in the living room. His date has yet to make an appearance, but the frantic rushing in and out of a mother, an aunt, a female cousin, announce that progress is being made.
The front door stands open, allowing neighbors, high school friends, little brothers, to come, go, comment, encourage, heckle, observe and mingle within the communal scene that is senior prom night.
However, Clinton High School senior Krystle Gutman and her boyfriend, Clinton High junior T.J. Daugherty, delight in being different. So they came up with a way to not be the typical prom couple.
Their selected formalwear - including a coat with tails, bow tie and top hat for T.J.; ankle-length dress with ruffled bodice and corset-style back for Krystle - have features that will not be duplicated by any other couple at the Clinton High School senior prom.
One, their outfits were based on the 1971 movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
Two, they are made of duct tape.
The couple is participating in the national Stuck at Prom Duck Brand Duct Tape Scholarship Contest. Winners judged to have produced the best duct-tape prom attire will share a $22,000 prize pool, including $3,000 apiece for the first place couple plus $3,000 for their school.
Krystle, 18, says she doesn't expect to win the top juried prize. But she does have hopes for one of the 11 "Best in Class" Awards to be chosen through online voting at www.stuckatprom.com. The superlatives include Most Likely to be Class Clown and Most Likely to Stop Traffic.
Anyway, the couple say they chose the hardware aisle over the mall for their prom ensemble just to be different. Last year, before Krystle's junior prom, she and T.J. (who turns 17 in June) eschewed candles and linen tablecloths and instead enjoyed a pre-prom dinner of pizza and games at Celebration Station.
Last Saturday night, Krystle and T.J.'s ride to dinner and the prom was provided by a 52-year-old Elvis imitator and his 1984 Cadillac limo, which features an interior patterned after the Graceland jungle room.
Elvis was with them all night, delivering them to the prom at Knoxville's Crowne Plaza Hotel, then to a Sonic for ice cream, and finally back home in Clinton around 2 a.m.
The duct tape prom duds didn't last as long as the King. Duct tape doesn't breathe, or sit well, and try keeping a napkin on your lap ("It slid right off," Krystle said). After about an hour at the prom, plenty of time to be the talk of the event, Krystle and T.J. changed to regular clothes.
Earlier, after dinner at a West Knoxville restaurant, T.J. discovered that bending to sit in his brown duct tape-covered polyester thrift-store pants, he had cracked a seam. But the pants held together - after all, duct tape is strong enough to seal a leaking water pipe.
Most of T.J's ensemble was duct tape over regular clothing. Only his tuxedo shirt was duct tape-free. His bow tie and lapel flower were 100 percent duct tape.
Krystle labored for four months to craft a dress from duct tape-covered fabric, but didn't like the results. She started over with wire and plastic meshes that she could mold into a fashionable form.
To match T.J.'s candy-maker Willy Wonka, Krystle used multiple colors of duct tape to decorate her dress as a giant Wonka chocolate bar. Since the contest does not allow copyrighted names to appear on the clothing, Krystle substituted her own name for that of "Wonka."
She spray-painted her all-duct tape purse with gold paint and labeled it a Golden Ticket. Her brightly colored duct tape necklace and earrings were "everlasting gobstoppers," a Wonka treat.
Krystle also wore a tiara, toe ring and wrist corsage, and both she and T.J. sported initial rings - all made of duct tape.
The couple made a splashy entrance at the prom, with Elvis in the lead and their duct tape creations - representing about a $90 investment for 15 rolls of tape - turning heads away from designer duds that had dented many a Clinton wallet.
As their procession made its way toward the ballroom - led by a King, and including a court of supportive friends - the couple didn't even notice the kneeling Crowne Plaza employee as they breezed past. To protect guests against trips, she was securing a tangle of wires from the prom photographers' lighting equipment to the floor.
With duct tape.
"You might be a Redneck if..."
2005 Winners:
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2002 Winners:
That's one way to make sure your daughters prom dress doesn't come off!! Get er done...
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