There’s an age-old joke among engineers, builders, crafters, and many other professions that if it doesn’t wobble but it should, use WD-40, and if it wobbles but it shouldn’t, use duct tape. At this point, both WD-40 and duct tape have become so universal and so iconic that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these have many more uses than one would expect.
So, apparently, you can make a dress using duct tape. Or any other bit of clothing, in fact, there’s even a scholarship contest named Stuck At Prom that’s hosted by Duck Brand, an American duct tape, package supplies, and home products company.
You can do a lot of things with duct tape, but a prom dress has never really occurred to many of us
Image credits: Peyton Manker
The idea is to make a dress or tuxedo using Duck Brand’s duct tape and to wear it for prom for a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship. Over 110 contestants have already entered, but there’s one who stood out the most and has been making headlines recently.
Peyton Manker is an 18-year-old senior student from Illinois who decided to try her luck and entered the contest. At first, she thought she’d be crafting a dress dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, a favorite of hers. However, the pandemic struck and the prom and graduation festivities were canceled. So, it was time for plan B.
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Peyton Manker, a senior student from Illinois, decided to take part in Duck Brand’s competition to create a prom dress (or a tuxedo) out of duct tape
Image credits: Peyton Manker
She decided to make a COVID-19 themed dress. She had a hunch nobody else would, and it would be one that definitely stands out from the rest. So, she got cracking on the design.
So, the COVID-themed duct tape prom dress features a number of details that reference all the things that happened during the lockdown. This includes imagery of zoom classes and online graduations, people in masks and those sneezing, people running away from the coronavirus, a call to flatten the curve, and also an image honoring essential and front-line workers.
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Image credits: Peyton Manker
The competition promises a $10,000 scholarship to the first prize winner and various prizes for runners up
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Besides the predominantly blue and gold gown, Peyton also crafted a duct tape mask, a coronavirus shaped purse, and a number of smaller accessories like a hair clip and a wristband, all adorned with viral imagery.
Turns out, the dress took her nearly 400 hours to make, using up 41 rolls of duct tape. This translates to 16.6 straight days of designing and crafting and roughly 820 yards (or 750 meters) of duct tape. We’ve estimated the cost of the dress (duct tape-wise) varied between $150 and $245, depending on where you buy.
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Nearly 400 hours and 41 rolls of duct tape later, Peyton came out with an impressive COVID-themed dress
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Manker also explained some of the images on her dress, saying that the virtual graduation was a tribute to her classmates and other seniors who did not have the privilege to attend a normal graduation. The image of essential workers is a tribute to those working on the front lines. The image of people running away from the virus signifies the world trying to escape it.
Despite how awesome it looks, the dress requires a certain degree of sacrifice when wearing it. Besides it being relatively heavy and stiff due to the weight and the different fabric of the tape, it is also extremely hot. Whilst Peyton was taking photos, she was constantly sweating and it was killing her ankles.
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Image credits: Peyton Manker
The dress as well as its accessories feature COVID-related imagery like masks, the virus, essential workers, and zoom graduations, to name a few
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Peyton wanted the dress to represent the pandemic in a positive light: not as a piece of history, but rather as a representation that humanity got through it.
It wasn’t long until the dress went viral on the internet. Suzy, Peyton’s mother, shared some pictures of the dress on her Facebook, which reached people beyond just friends and family. The post garnered over 148,000 reactions with 50,000 comments and over 250,000 shares.
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Her mom shared photos on Facebook and they went viral with over 148k reactions and 250k shares
Image credits: Peyton Manker
The community can still vote on the duct tape dresses and tuxedos until July 10th with the final winners being announced on July 21st. There’s even a Facebook page dedicated to Peyton’s prom dress with over 16,000 followers, which you can support as well.
What do you think about this dress? Why not also tell us what are some of the more unorthodox things you’ve done with duct tape in the comments section below!
Image credits: Peyton Manker
Here’s how people on the internet reacted to the dress
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