The door to Thea Niall’s house opens to reveal a whirl of shimmering sequins, selfies, shrieks of delight and the excited tap of high heels. The peaty scent of makeup mingles in the hallway with the sharp fizz of champagne and hairspray. It’s the night of Niall’s year 12 formal and the Northcote high school captain has invited her friends and their parents to her house to get ready.
Photos are snapped, dresses adjusted and everyone is chatting about what the big night signifies and how much effort has gone into it. High school formals are a rite of passage for Australian students – a marker of the shift between teenage years and adulthood. For many, it’s the first time they’ll attend an event like this; the first time they’ll wear a gown or a suit.
And, like any big event, it can’t help but come with pressures – both financial and cultural. In February, one of the first things that newly minted co-captain Yasmin Elsakawy had to do was make a Facebook group to prevent any two attendees from wearing the same dress to the formal – then six months away. “Everyone posts a photo of their dress so there are no double-ups,” Elsakawy says.
“Within 10 minutes, there were two posts of people’s dresses. People had been planning their dresses for some time!” At Northcote, the formal is “for the students, by the students”, organised by the four school captains and envisaged as “a way for students to celebrate the connection they’ve built over the last .