pey_mank

2020 High School senior, Peyton Manker of Southern Illinois, created her prom dress entirely out of duct tape with her own artwork of the coronavirus pandemic. It took her around 400 hours over a course of 4 months and 41 rolls of duct tape to complete. The dress was for a $10,000 prize in the Stuck at Prom scholarship contest held by the company Duck Brand. She ended up winning the overall Grand Prize! Her description of the dress from the Stuck At Prom 2020 gallery: “The coronavirus pandemic became my inspiration for my dress once it hit the USA and took my peers and I out of school and canceled our senior proms. I chose to represent how the coronavirus affected not only us, but the world through artwork I created myself. Also wanting to stand out, I designed my dress to be a large, paneled, ball gown style with ruffles at the top and many intricate designs. Such designs are the golden coronavirus accents on the bottom of the dress as well as on the pockets. The other intricate designs are showcased on the panels. Each is a work of art representing something different. To start off, the front left panel design represents those on the front line such as doctors, nurses, janitors, postal workers, police officers, construction workers, the military, grocery workers, restaurant workers, firefighters, etc. For the front middle panel, I created a man who represents mental illness during quarantine whether it be due to isolation, worry, fear, or even being affected personally by the virus. The front right design is meant to be a virtual 2020 graduation through a video chat. I created this design when a virtual graduation was only a joke among my peers but eventually, it became a reality for my classmates and I. The back left and right panels are meant to be one design. It showcases a woman infected with the virus as well as a man trying to protect himself from it using his mask as a shield. The final panel design represents the world trying to run from the virus both figuratively and literally. Other nationalities can be represented through the clothing. This better represents the "world". I realize that the coronavirus is not green, however, these colors better fit my color scheme and causes the dress to be more vibrant. The design placed on the top part of the dress represents social distancing and the six feet guidelines. As my final design, the face mask represents the curve and how wearing protective measures helps to flatten it which is why it is so important to wear them. A majority of my accessories are based on the coronavirus with my purse being an actual coronavirus! For the rest of my accessories, I made an arm bouquet with toilet paper accents to shed light on the lack of toilet paper during this time and the frustration people experienced during this shortage. I also made a hair piece with the words, " Separately Together", to let people know that even though we are separated, we can still get through this together. Lastly, I made an anklet spelling out, "This Too Shall Pass". The reason I chose to place this saying on an anklet is because it can be forgotten. It cannot be seen unless I lift up my dress. This represents how people may have forgotten that the coronavirus pandemic will eventually pass and everything will be okay. “