The Oscars it isn't, but prom creates as much talk in high school hallways as the fashion from the annual awards ceremony does on the talk-show circuit. Early each spring, teen-age girls around the region choose what style and color of dress to wear to the biggest dance of the school year.

Their male classmates generally get to take the easy route, renting a tuxedo and buying corsages. By contrast, some girls spend months trying to find their dress. But then others choose the last-minute approach.

The dress Jessica Layman plans to wear to prom this year wasn't her first choice. She actually thought it was too ugly to even consider trying on, but did so to humor her young cousin and mother during a shopping trip in Memphis, Tenn.

"It was sort of last minute," she said. But buying the dress out of town means that it's unlikely anyone else will be wearing that design. "It was really ugly on the hanger, but it's cute on."

She tried to find a dress in a local shop or by ordering from a magazine but had no luck. "I was getting nervous," she said. "I found one in a magazine and called to order it in March and they only had a size 20 left."

So she had to give up that dream and find another dress. Shortly after that, she went to Memphis to visit relatives and found her baby blue dress.

Layman, a senior at Central High School, hasn't been to a prom before. At Central, only seniors and their guests are allowed to attend the dance.

At Oak Ridge High School, the juniors prepare the decorations for the dance and both juniors and seniors can attend.

Central senior Erica Kinnison was invited to the dance as a junior. But that experience wasn't a great one. Last-minute shopping for a dress to wear nearly sent her into a tizzy last year.

This year should be much calmer, she said. She's already got her dress -- a red, sequined off-the-shoulder design.

Like many girls her age, Kinnison scanned the pages of prom magazines to find a dress she wanted. Some pages of the YM Prom magazine being passed around her circle of friends were dog-eared or the pictures circled if it was a style one girl liked.

"That way you knew who wanted what style," she said.

Last year was different. Kinnison and her mother spent most of the afternoon prior to prom shopping for a dress at the mall. She had to have something to wear that night. And then she had to find jewelry and shoes to match.

This year she's going with a group of friends, 20 couples who are meeting together at a classmate's home for a catered meal and photo shoot before the dance, and that should be a better time. "We'll probably all laugh about the pictures," she said.

Ashley Ford's already had her pictures taken in her prom dress. She did some modeling for the shop where she bought her dress.

Ford found the dress months ago. She had some ideas about what she wanted to wear and decided to go shopping early.

"I pulled it off the rack and my mom said 'That's you.' I tried it on and said 'This is the dress,'" Ford said.

The dress is pink, strapless with a beaded bodice and has a full skirt. "Whenever I put it on I feel like Barbie," Ford said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126