Saturday October 21 marked a night many upperclassmen had been anticipating for months: Homecoming. This iconic high school dance consists of taking photos with friends, making lifelong memories, and most importantly, picking out an outfit.

Some take a casual approach to the matter: guys might wear a simple button-up shirt with sneakers, and girls a short dress. Some, however, take a more sophisticated approach, sporting a full suit or long dress. 

Either way, the excitement that comes with picking out an outfit for Homecoming is something everyone looks forward to. 

However, with a large shift towards ordering Homecoming dresses online rather than in-person, a pattern of delayed arrival times has emerged. 

Whereas the typical Amazon package arrives within a few days of ordering, Homecoming dresses can take up to three months to arrive at one’s doorstep. 

Familiar with this problem, Junior Alyson Truong explained, “I pre-ordered a dress from Lucy in the Sky and it took about a month to ship. The estimated time got delayed a few days but the dress showed up in a week once it shipped.”

Similarly, Junior Maddie Mercier said, “I ordered from Shopinwell and it took about three weeks to come in. Thankfully, I ordered it in early September so I got the dress about a week ago, but I can imagine people are frustrated that it’s taking so long to ship and Homecoming is this Saturday.”

Junior Caelin Howley expressed a similar sentiment saying, “I ordered two dresses from two different places pretty early in September just because I knew it would take about five to seven business days. I know a lot of people who still haven’t even ordered one yet and probably aren’t going to find one on time.”

Some have recognized these shipping issues, and have turned to the old-school version of shopping in-person. Junior Leyla Ghazian explained, “I personally bought mine in person because I knew it would be so much faster. But from my experience last year of buying a dress online it was just very stressful being unsure if it would come on time and also if it would fit the way I wanted it to.”

This recurring issue of delayed dress deliveries leads to the question of why does it take so long for a dress to arrive in time for the event it’s ordered for?

Some argue it’s because all school dances occur around the same time. As Junior Alana Cheairs explained, “Big dress brands like Lucy in the Sky or Isabelle’s Cabinet are only really used for school dances, like Hoco.”

Others argue it’s because the majority of dresses are being shipped from outside the United States. Junior Mae Anthony expressed, “My dress probably would have taken a quarter of the time to arrive if it was shipped from the US.”

One should never feel the need to purchase a new outfit for every event they attend. Before ordering dresses online was a thing, many would reuse older siblings’ past dresses, or even a parents’ dress. 

Yet, with the ability of finding the perfect dress online (and quickly), it is no wonder why so many people ordered Homecoming dresses online. 

Due to the skyrocketing trend of online dress-purchasing, many popular dress bands need months to ship their orders: leading to the backup most students complain about. At the same time,  this has only added to the Fast Fashion epidemic occurring all over the world. 

Despite the delivery delays, the joy of getting a new outfit is an irreplaceable feeling. However, But before hitting the order button, think twice and wonder if that “new dress” is entirely worth it.