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10 Really Bad Prom Dresses

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Ten prom dresses that skipped the fabric store entirely and went straight to the hardware aisle, the candy bowl, and the recycling bin.

Every spring, thousands of high schoolers head to prom in the usual uniform — satin, tulle, a rented tux to match. Then there’s the handful who decide none of that will do, and instead build their outfit from duct tape, gum wrappers, or a stack of old newspapers. TheThings Celebrity rounded up ten of the most out-of-the-box results in its countdown video, and the entries range from genuinely impressive to genuinely confusing.

• Several entries are full duct tape gowns, the kind built by students competing in the annual Duck Tape “Stuck at Prom” scholarship contest, which can take hundreds of hours and dozens of rolls to finish.
• Other dresses on the list are made from hundreds of Starburst or gum wrappers, newspaper pages, soda can tabs, and even balloons.
• The countdown also features pop-culture-themed gowns, extreme high-slit or sheer designs, and matching couple outfits cut from camouflage or national flags.

Duct Tape Becomes a Design Material

The duct tape entries are the backbone of the list, and for good reason — they’re not novelty costumes thrown together the night before. Students who enter the Duck Tape “Stuck at Prom” contest are chasing a real scholarship, and the video’s countdown makes clear how much labor goes into a finished gown: rolls upon rolls of colored tape, cut and layered into pleats, bodices, and trains that mimic actual fabric. The result looks less like a prank and more like a genuine test of patience.

That’s part of what makes the segment work as entertainment rather than just mockery. The video frames these looks with a wink, wondering aloud whether future kids will tease their parents for wearing tape to prom, but it never pretends the craftsmanship isn’t real.

Candy Wrappers, Newspaper, and Soda Tabs

Beyond duct tape, the countdown leans into the DIY-prom subculture that treats “found materials” as a badge of honor. One dress is stitched together from hundreds of individual Starburst or chewing gum wrappers, folded and linked into a shimmering, crinkly bodice. Another is built from full sheets of newspaper, and a third strings together soda can pull-tabs into a metallic, almost chainmail-like texture. Balloons make an appearance too, stretched and knotted into shapes nobody’s prom-dress shopping app ever suggested.

Dozens of rolls of tape, hundreds of hours, one night to wear it.

Each of these entries lands in the same place: they’re less about looking traditionally prom-ready and more about proving a point, whether that’s ingenuity, thriftiness, or just the willingness to stand out in a gym full of matching gowns.

Themes, Slits, and Matching Couples

The rest of the list drifts into pure spectacle. There are pop-culture homage gowns built around a specific character or franchise, extreme high-slit or transparent designs that push well past typical prom-dance-code territory, and coordinated couple outfits made from camouflage print or full national flags. It’s the kind of mix that reliably splits a comment section — some viewers see fashion ingenuity worth applauding, others see a straightforward fail, and the video’s countdown format practically invites that debate by ranking them side by side.

That split reaction is the whole engine behind why lists like this travel well online, in the same way viral compilation videos tend to spread — a clear hook, a countdown structure, and content built for arguing about in the replies. Prom-dress countdowns have become a recurring genre for exactly that reason, alongside format cousins like roundups of the most expensive wedding gowns on the opposite end of the fashion spectrum.

Whichever entry ranks worst is a matter of taste, but the duct tape gowns are the ones with an actual paper trail — a scholarship contest, a materials list, and a tradition that keeps producing new entries every prom season. The gum-wrapper dress might get the bigger laugh in the comments, but somewhere out there is a kid who just funded part of their freshman year tuition with a few hundred rolls of tape.