Have a Budget in Mind
I started with the easiest dress code, because I am a lazy procrastinator and the other ones looked hard: Because I am 5'3'' and "fingertip length" rules are basically pointless nonsense on me because my arms are short (more on that in a moment), all the dresses were allowed: Here's the dress I chose to wear for my hypothetical trip to Ben Davis High School's prom, which is adorable, and so I assumed it wouldn't be allowed for most of the other high schools (spoiler: It is not): Next, I tried another school that I had pegged during the planning of this project as a "relatively easy" dress code: So while Broken Arrow High School has a relatively forgiving dress code, it's still presented in a way that might warrant hiring an SAT tutor to understand
Key Features: Black satin with side cutouts
To bring it up a notch, add a neutral-colored shacket (AKA a shirt-jacket hybrid)
There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page
This is the time of year to embrace colour, and when it comes to what to wear over a dress, your layering pieces should reflect that too