14 rolls of duct tape, 120 hours, and 18th-century art. That’s what got California teenager Karla Torres a spot as a finalist in the national Duck Brand Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest.
Torres, who is from Los Angeles and recently graduated high school, told USA TODAY that she made the pink, white and gold duct tape dress on a whim, not expecting to be a finalist out of hundreds of students.
“It was kind of spontaneous decision. I really just wanted to see how it would go,” Torres said. “I never expected anything, I just wanted to see, and it seemed like a fun project to do.”
Now, Torres is up against nine other finalists with the chance to win thousands of dollars.
What is the Stuck at Prom contest?
According to the contest’s website, the Stuck at Prom Contest is a national competition in which high school students create and wear a prom outfit made entirely out of Duck Tape, with the first-place winner receiving a $10,000 scholarship prize. The outfit could be a tuxedo or a prom dress.
The contest began on March 29 and the submission period ended on June 7. July 12 is the last day of community voting, where people across the country are able to vote for one of the 10 finalists to win. Torres said as the voting period wraps up, she’s doing her best to remind people to stay engaged and vote.
“I have a lot of support,” Torres said. “Right now, I’ve been having a lot of support from my family, reminding people to vote or just being overall supportive.”
If Torres wins the competition, the money will be put towards funding her education at California State University, Fullerton, she said.
Torres’ dress was a quick turnaround
Torres said she began making her dress late into the submission period, but always knew that she wanted to enter the contest.
“I discovered it during quarantine, so I knew I wanted to join it and I decided to do it like my senior year,” Torres said. “I didn’t start all the way until May. That was really late … I didn’t have time to think things over, I had to just keep on working every day.”
Ultimately, Torres had a week to complete the dress, but got it in before the June 7 deadline.
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Torres drew inspiration from art, social media
According to Torres’s profile page on the contest website, the design for the dress came from French art that she saw at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
The profile states that Torres was in awe of the extravagant gowns of the time. She wanted to show that being in the 21st century “doesn’t stop us from dressing up from any time period.”
Torres told USA TODAY she drew ideas from social media, including on Pinterest, to try and incorporate other ideas into her design. She had never done anything like this before and had to do it quickly, she said.
“It was a lot of trial and error because I never made a dress out of tape or a dress, in fact,” Torres said. “It was really challenging to work with tape because it’s not like fabric, it doesn’t bend as easily.”
The biggest challenge during the construction of the dress was its top. Torres had to find a way to make it look tightly fitted. She spent a lot of time cutting and placing the tape in certain positions to have it fit perfectly.
The success of the dress ultimately ended up being something unexpected: wax paper.
“At first I didn’t know what I was going to put the tape on, so I used different things to see what would work best and at the end we used wax paper, because if you put the duct tape on and if there’s air bubbles or if it’s not smooth then you can like take it off and then reapply it to make it smooth,” she said.
Overall, Torres said she thinks the accessories that she made for the dress, including a clutch, a fan, a necklace, and a hairpiece, are what set her apart.
“I just wanted to add those types of things. I thought it was really elegant and it was going to elevate the look,” she said.
Anticipation builds as the competition comes to a close
Looking forward, Torres said she is excited to be considered as a finalist in the competition.
“There were hundreds of other people that could have been a finalist as well, so I was just really grateful,” Torres said. “When they called me, telling me that I was a finalist, I was so excited.”
As for the state of the dress, it is currently hanging in Torres’s room, just in case she wins.
“Because the bottom part is kind of like a hoop skirt, I just have it hanging and it’s really heavy. The top part is really light,” Torres said. “Hopefully, if I win the scholarship, I’m supposed to send the dress to the company.”
The winner of the contest, both in the duct tape dress category and the duct tape tux category, will be announced on July 19.
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Kate Perez covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kperez@gannett.com or on Twitter @katecperez_.