In South Africa, in the last year of school, one of the highlights of the year is the Matric Dance. It is a night similar to the American prom night (I think) and allows one all the excuses to dress up as fancy as one can go. We spend weeks picking the right dress, the right accessories and of course the right date. Mine was quite early in the year but I was fortunate enough to be invited by two of my friends to go to their dances quite recently.
The first was on the 20th of September (right in the middle of my exams) and it was the St Johns dance. I went with a friend of mine who spoilt me with a beautiful bunch of flowers which I wish could have lasted forever. The evening was beautiful and as it belonged to one of the top schools in the country it had a budget beyond our dreams so every detail from the table settings to the lighting was out of this world. It had a winter wonderland theme and the room was a wash of soft white shapes with silver and blue bits completing it. They even had an ice sculpture on the way in (a bit of a waste of money especially since it got brutally hailed on but still made my mouth open with awe). We were lucky enough to arrive before the rain started (yes it rained – this is a bit of a tradition for St Johns dances) so it didn’t dampen our evening although it did soak some people. I witnessed girls trying to dry their dresses and hair in the bathroom hand dryers because they were so wet, but even those girls had smiles on their faces because the evening was incredible. It was peaceful and memorizing. The boy who was my date for the evening was sweet and polite (the kind of polite that verges on sexism) and he took good care of me. For what ever reason the girls at my school are very closely linked with the St Johns boys so there were lots of people who I knew there. My best friend even sat next to me for dinner. I didn’t end up going to the after party as I had an exam on the monday but I don’t know how much I missed considering that it was a roof top party and it had poured with hail and rain only a couple of hours earlier.
Obviously the most exciting part of the evening for me was getting to dress up. I didn’t buy a dress but because I have a class of 111 girls all of whom got dressed for our dance, I had a huge selection to choose from. It is an unofficial agreement int he school girl code to share dresses and so I had my pick of the beautiful gowns but I knew exactly which one I wanted. When I first saw it, I fell in love. When my friend said hello to me at our dance dressed like she was out of a fairytale, the picture of perfection I knew I had to wear it. She designed the dress herself and it is a beautiful soft blue and white dress that has a full skirt and comes in at the waist. It is modest and simple yet elegant. I had to obviously give my twist to it which is why I matched it with clashing coral clutch and due to a slight height difference I couldn’t wear heels so I ended up in matching coral sandals. I felt beautiful, I felt comfortable and i had a wonderful evening.
The second dance was with an old family friend of mine. He goes to Parktown Boys High. This is a government school in Johannesburg. This dance was completely different. The people, the budget, the setting and the atmosphere were worlds apart from the St John’s one but still enjoyable. Both the boys and the girls were more relaxed as it wasn’t as hyped up as the previous one. Sadly there weren’t many girls that I knew there. I did make friends with some of the girls at our table but it would have been nice to have some friendly faces around however my date was there and he was more than sufficient. His friends were I think it’s safe to say, insane but they were friendly and nice and extremely entertaining. Because my date is a prefect we had to open the dance with a waltz. I can’t waltz but neither could anyone else so we just looked like a clump of chaos but it was fun and light-hearted so no one minded. This time I did go to the after party. It was at Manhattans and so a few of my school friends came. It was just like any other time clubbing except I forgot to pack flats to I spent the entire night in my wedges. My feet still havent forgiven me.
To this dance I borrowed another girls dress. This one was completely different. It was a grey navy with a low sweet heart type neckline. It went in at my waste, emphasising it (and making me feel super skinny which was nice). It was ever so slightly to big for me and not quite as comfortable as the previous one but I still enjoyed wearing it and I liked dabbling in the more daring make up and hair that went with it and of course I got to wear heels. I also enjoyed this dance and I found that noting the vast differences between the dances was entertaining and eye-opening.
Plain Old Glasses 