Deserving High School Girls “Say Yes To The Prom” Thanks To TLC, BCBGeneration & JC Penney

Prom, fashion, beauty, and doing good for girls who do good all in one room???!!
Well, count me in.

 

Me, Prisila Cisneros and Say Yes To The Dress's Monte Durham. She was straight up Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie, y'all. A dream come true!

Me, Prisila Cisneros and Say Yes To The Dress’s Monte Durham. She was straight up Peaches ‘n’ Cream Barbie, y’all. A dream come true!

I was proud to join TLC, part of the Discovery Communications family, when they joined forces with BCBGeneration to bring its SAY YES TO THE PROM initiative to the west coast for the first time on Wednesday, May 6.

The program, designed to build courage and self-confidence among young women, welcomed a select group of deserving high school girls from Los Angeles School of Global Studies and Manual Arts Senior High School to the BCBG Corporate Headquarters for a day of mentoring, prom dress shopping and makeovers. Joyce Azria, Creative Director for BCBGeneration, and Edwina Findley Dickerson, star of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network’s IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG, also joined the fun – and confidence-boosting –  festivities.

Monte Durham, fashion director and star of TLC’s SAY YES TO THE DRESS: ATLANTA, hosted the day’s events, where each girl was paired with a mentor who served as coach, personal shopper and style assistant throughout the day. I got to witness this magic, and it was truly something special that I will never forget.

Girls selected from nearly 3,000 donated dresses as well as nearly 300 BCBGeneration dresses hand-selected by Creative Director Joyce Azria.

Girls selected from nearly 3,000 donated dresses as well as nearly 300 BCBGeneration dresses hand-selected by Creative Director Joyce Azria.

Prom dreams – and so much more – were fulfilled as each of the girls had the opportunity to select from nearly 300 BCBGeneration dresses, specifically selected by Joyce Azria for the event.

Dress selection time!

Dress selection time!

After selecting their accessories, the girls’ looks were custom-outfitted with hair styles and makeovers courtesy of JCPenney salon experts, beauty guru Cris Ordaz of Discovery Familia’s GURUS DE BELLEZA, Ruby Makeup Academy and StyleSeat. For many, it was the dream-come-true of a lifetime.

 

Primping: Makeup & hair for the girls

Primping: Makeup & hair for the girls

Makeup mayhem!  But all for a good cause!

Makeup mayhem! But all for a good cause!

Then? Why, it was time to show off the gorgeousness! The girls strutted their stuff, by showing their new prom-ready looks during a red carpet runway reveal show. They may have looked beautiful, but the inner joy these girls were radiating was just the most beautiful thing you could ever see.

Runway 3

Runway 4

Runway 1

In addition to the day’s style sessions, mentoring events and a red carpet finale, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the students with a special video message.

The Los Angeles event marked the final stop on the 2015 SAY YES TO THE PROM tour, which this year more than doubled the impact of previous years by touching the lives of deserving girls from coast to coast. The tour kicked off in NYC on March 16 and continued with additional events in Denver, Washington, D.C. and Miami before making its way to Los Angeles.

Monte, "The Fairy Godfather"  & his girls!

Monte, “The Fairy Godfather” & his girls!

xoxo,
Dawn