Thanks to Warrior’s wife, girls choose free prom dresses
Dymond Allen wanted to shine. The 17-year-old Oakland High School student didn’t want any old dress for prom on May 13. She wanted one with pearls, sequins and bright colors.
“I like bling,” Dymond said. “I just want to stand out.”
Dymond joined hundreds of girls Saturday morning inside the Oakland High School gymnasium, where they perused 1,000 prom and special event dresses that were there for the picking, free of charge.
The effort was put together by Lesley West, wife of Golden State Warriors forward David West, with the help of the Oakland Education Fund, the Oakland Unified School District and the Warriors.
“If I can put that smile on somebody’s face and make them feel like a princess because of me, (it’s) worthwhile,” said West, who was clad in Warriors colors at the school gym — she sported a Warriors shirt, and had bluepainted fingernails and a pair of blue Chanel sunglasses, which rested atop her head.
West, who said she loves to dress up for special occasions, added that she worked two jobs in high school to buy dresses for four different proms.
She first volunteered with a prom dress giveaway in New Orleans, the year before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when her husband played for the New Orleans Hornets, since renamed the Pelicans.
The experience gave her the idea to start a prom dress giveaway in every city she lived in. Last year, she organized the event in San Antonio when her husband played for the Spurs. This is the first year she’s hosting the giveaway in Oakland.
“I try to get dresses all year round,” West said.
About 15 racks were lined up throughout the gym filled with different size dresses — some had frills and tutus, while others were elegant ball gowns in pink, purple, white and green. West purchased 700 of the dresses and the remaining 300 were donated by friends, family and different clothing stores.
Girls with their mothers and friends contemplated short frocks and Cinderellalooking gowns as Justin Bieber blared over the speakers.
“You can only take one, right?” asked Kristika Thiyagarajah, an 18-year-old student at Oakland International High School.
As one of the volunteers nodded, Kristika looked at the two dresses she had selected — a pink dress that matched her flannel shirt and was adorned with diamond sequins and a long white gown with black streaks.
She hastily handed the white dress back to the volunteer, keeping the pink dress as the one for prom night.
“It’s really elegant, at the same time, unique,” Kristika said of her selection, pointing out the pink, diamond sequins.
The girls filtered into the room, 50 at a time, for onehour intervals. The back of the gym had been transformed into fitting rooms with black velvet curtains.
Dymond, a high school junior, scoured the racks. She had an hour to find the perfect dress before her work shift started at a barbecue restaurant. All her prom plans rested on the dress she would wear: her hair, makeup and what her date would wear.
“He’s cute,” Dymond said, smiling, adding that he was a friend, as she quickly pushed aside a long, green ball gown that was sequin-less.
She grabbed dresses in pink, blue and black that were shorter in length, but all had one thing in common: they were bedazzled.
As Dymond stepped out of the makeshift dressing room in her first selection, the light blue dress, a stark contrast from the black-and-red polkadot socks she had on, a volunteer said, “She looks pretty in it.”
Four dresses later, Dymond placed three of them back on the rack, ending with the one: the same light-blue frock that was the first one she picked up shortly after arriving.
“It’s bright,” she said with a grin as she ran her fingers over the silver jewels. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani