`Notorious dress style also forbidden at Sharon's prom`

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

``My daughter has that same prom dress,'' lamented Marlene Porterfield.

Her daughter, Veronica, a 17-year-old Sharon High School junior, has ordered a two-piece, midriff-exposing dress similar to one that was banned by Farrell schools. Greenville schools also have outlawed these belly-baring beasts.

Sharon High principal Russell George said the school board outlawed midriff-exposing dresses about a month ago.

``I'm going to fight at the school board meeting,'' Mrs. Poterfield said. ``This is a respectable dress.''

The Sharon woman said she looked at the school's dress code and couldn't find any mention of a restriction that would forbid the dress. The ban is not written into the dress code, George said.

Mrs. Porterfield said the school should have sent word of the board's decision home to parents.

``How are we supposed to follow the rules when we're not informed of them?'' she asked. ``Why do I have to suffer for their slowness?''

But George said, ``We are a victim of designers. We're always trying to play catch up. I don't go down (to a dress shop) and browse the selection. Maybe we should if there's going to be a problem.''

Mrs. Porterfield said she would not have bought the gown if she knew bare midriffs were forbidden, but argued a few girls who attended the school's Sadie Hawkins dance wore similar dresses. George responded he had not heard that until Mrs. Porterfield made the claim, and would look into it.

``Could that have happened? Yes,'' George said. ``A teacher probably would be very reluctant to tell her, `Hey, wait a minute. You're not allowed in here.' ''

George said his only recollection of a similar dress being worn was from about three years, when a girl wore a two-piece outfit that exposed very little skin. ``The two parts were very closely matched,'' he said.

Susan Achenbach, bridal consultant at Helen Freed's Inc., the Sharon dress shop where Veronica bought her gown, said belly-baring dresses are nothing new to Sharon proms. She said girls wore a similar style at last year's grand march.

Mrs. Porterfield said if the school is going to forbid bare bellies at the prom, it should not have allowed the costumes in last year's school theatrical production of ``South Pacific.'' Girls in the cast wore Hawaiian hula skirts and no shoes, and boys went shirtless, she said.

George said prom attire and theater costumes are two separate issues.

``How do you have a Hawaiian issue without wearing those kinds of costumes?'' George asked. ``You want to be as real to the play as possible without being indecent.''

Veronica settled on the dress because designers don't make many outfits to her size, her mother said.

``She's a smaller girl,'' Mrs. Porterfield said. ``It's hard to find a dress that fits her right. The tops of the other dresses didn't fit her right. This top fit her perfectly.''

The Porterfields are stuck with the $277 dress because Helen Freed's has a no-return policy, Mrs. Porterfield said. The dress shop's deadline for ordering gowns that will be shipped in time for the prom was Feb. 27 _ the day Veronica bought her dress, Ms. Achenbach said.

Veronica has vowed to wear it at the prom no matter what the school rules, her mother said.

Girls who wear dresses that violate the dress code will be turned away at the door, George said.

Ms. Achenbach said she has sold this style of dress to girls from Hickory and Reynolds high schools.

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Updated March 15, 1997
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