I

AM old enough to remember the days before school leaving dos were called ‘proms’. A more innocent time when this rite of passage did not come complete with stretch Hummers, limos, afternoons at the beauty salon or chocolate fountains.

That’s not to say we didn’t have a party.

My high school leaving ball was quite the glitzy affair. It took place at a local stately home and we had... well we had a ball.

My frock – a rather fetching red floor-length number with a bow on the front that really should not have been allowed out of the Eighties – came not from a seamstress who had spent months slaving over a hot sewing machine, but from a local charity shop. And it rocked.

A couple of years later, for my college ball, post-Alevel exams, things had stepped up a gear. My dress – red again (I was going through a Pretty Woman phase, I don’t think I have worn a red dress since) – was new this time but with shoes, bag, hair and make-up, all told, I don’t think I spent more than £100.

My mum did my hair and our transport was my mate’s dad. If I remember correctly, I was still wearing the electric rollers when we piled into my mate’s dad’s car to head to the venue – you could say I was an early adopter of the Scouse trend.

If you have a child of 16 or 18 or younger, I have heard of primary schools having them, you don’t need me to tell you that these days proms – an American import of course – are big business.

Maybe not quite as big as they are across the Pond, where if the movies are to be believed the dress buying and corsage choosing goes hand in hand with weeks of worry about whether or not the right boy/girl wil ask you to be their date for the party, but they ain’t cheap.

A study by fashion retailer Simply Be last year, suggested that the cost of attending prom had shot up by 72% over the past five years. A growing trend for designer outfits and professional make-up had pushed the average cost to as much as £500.

It is an issue friends of mine are dealing with at the moment. They are mostly parents of boys but don’t think for a minute there is any less pressure on lads than girls.

Back in the day, black tie made it easy for boys. You just marched down to the nearest suit hire store with your mum and (she) asked them for a tux that fitted. But these days there are countless variations on black tie.

Do you go for the traditional Downton Abbey look complete with waistcoat and wing-tip collar shirt? Or perhaps you’ll nick James Bond’s white jacket style? Should it be a tie or a bow tie? For the really adventurous/ wannabe rock stars there’s even the velvet blazer option...

For girls there is always the fear of someone else turning up in the same frock. Embarrassing when you are a celeb, mortifying when you are a 16-yearold girl.

I am assured this concern has been largely dealt with now by Whats App and Instagram accounts where girls can post a picture of their dress, thereby staking a claim on it.

Yep, these days going to prom really is a whole different ball game...