What about Fancy Dress?

As everyone on the Washington and Lee campus knows, this past weekend was Fancy Dress. The 103rd Fancy Dress, to be exact. Clearly, it’s become something of a tradition—a tradition that’s extraordinarily well put together and anxiously-awaited every year. But it’s also become an expensive tradition: this year (as in past years), a single ticket to FD cost $55. If you also wanted the accoutrements—T-shirt, poster, cups, playbill—you paid $70. Over four years, you’re looking at almost $300 just for the dance. Add in dinner, and that cost just jumped up...and if you happen to be paying for two, forget it.

Don’t get me wrong—I went to FD this year, as I have the past three years, and I had a great time. But now that it’s all over, I can’t help but ask myself if it was worth it. Many people wouldn’t hesitate to answer that question affirmatively. Generally, I would agree—but after adding up everything I spent on all four FDs, and realizing that between dresses and tickets alone (I’ve been lucky enough to have built-in frat house dinners all four years) I’m between $500 and $1000 poorer than I would be without FD, my reluctance in saying it was worth it grows. After all, it really is just a dance—a very elaborately decorated, well-planned, huge deal kind of dance, but still just a dance. And I don’t think that in the next few years, when I’m (if I get lucky) in some kind of entry-level job, I’ll be willing to pay anywhere near that much for a dance. Or for any party, for that matter. I know I’m not entirely alone—most of my friends had at least some off-hand comment about the expense of Fancy Dress. But that expense doesn’t seem to stop most people (myself included) from actually going. Maybe the real world is too far way, and even though we all know we’re going to have to do some major budgeting in the coming years it hasn’t yet trickled down to what we’re doing now. Maybe it’s peer pressure—no one wants to be the Debbie Downer when it comes to Fancy Dress. Or maybe, when you’re actually caught up in the excitement of it all, there just isn’t time to worry about how much it costs. And maybe that’s the point.

-Erin Galliher