Adhesive Adoration
East Ridge High couple make duct-tape outfit for prom
Written by Michael Harris Photos by Anthony Rao
When Giancarlo DiLorenzo asked Jessica Mercer to the junior prom in February, he expected the answer to be yes.
The East Ridge High couple had been dating since June of 2009.
He even figured the follow-up question from Jessica would be coming as well.
“At first I was Ok, sure why not?” he says.
When Giancarlo first asked Jessica out in the summer of 2009, Jessica was adorned with pink hair. She admits bottles of pink, blue and green hair dye sit under her sink in the bathroom. She also says she wears pink skinny jeans, tutus to school and is in dance and theater.
After eight months of dating, Giancarlo expected a flair for out-of-the-box thinking on Jessica’s part.
“He knew I was a little out there,” she says.
When someone asks the other to wear duct tape as an outfit for the prom … well, it must be love.
“She randomly said after I asked her, ‘Hey let’s go to the prom in duct tape,’” he says. “I thought it was a little bit of a joke, but then I realized she was serious. It was hard to comprehend.”
Yes, duct tape, the adhesive invention in World War II that binds virtually anything together from ducts, holding a bumper to the car, a quick fix for a broken shoelace and even a use to repair upholstery.
Let’s just say Giancarlo and Jessica’s hearts are now sealed by duct tape. They have to be, right?
“There were definitely times I wanted to rip his head off and throw him out of my house,” Jessica says with a laugh. “When I work on a project, I tend to take on the load by myself and I had to share it.”
It was a project and you can blame the Duck Tape Company for it. You see, Jessica and Giancarlo weren’t doing this prom stunt just to be outgoing, nor to get looks from other students or administrators – there is a method to the stickiness.
It was part of a contest through the Duck Tape Company’s Web site at www.stuckatprom.com for Jessica and Giancarlo to each win a $3,000 scholarship toward college. Unfortunately of more than 240 entries Jessica and Giancarlo were not selected in the top 10 couples to win the scholarship.
But you never know until you try.
Sticky Sweat Equity
Crafting a dress, suit and accessories out of duct tape doesn’t come without a price. Cost of the 38 rolls of tape used wasn’t an issue, but the time to do it was.
In fact, Jessica says her and Giancarlo spent more than 170 hours working on the items on the project that began in February and wasn’t completed until an hour or two before they left for the prom on April 17.
“Once we got involved, the novelty started to wear off. I mean, somewhere in the middle there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. “There were times I didn’t think we were going to finish.”
Jessica chose an under-the-sea design theme and Giancarlo met Jessica and her mom, Anjanette, at the fabric store in Winter Garden. The adventure below the depths of the water … and duct tape … began there.
The group spent an entire day looking through dress patterns, suit patterns, vest patterns and tie patterns in an effort to come up with the complete package.
Jessica also found out duct tape is really near impossible to sew so parts of the outfits had to be stapled.
The first item started was Giancarlo’s wallet, easy enough. Second was the top part of Jessica’s dress, but the entire dress wasn’t completed until the day of the prom.
“There was tracing paper and you have to cut it and then tape it … and cut it again, tape it together and staple it,” Jessica says.
Giancarlo’s vest was the first “real” item of clothing to be done. On the vest are turtles and a crab, which is a symbol of the couple’s initial dates.
“We were at the beach one day and a crab bit me,” Giancarlo says.
Attention to detail is one of the prizes of the outfit. For example, to outline Giancarlo’s black pants, duct-tape seaweed is attached to the cuffs to give the idea that it’s the bottom of the sea. To add to that, Jessica made a bottom-dwelling anglerfish on Giancarlo’s left knee.
Jessica’s purse is a three-dimensional fish tank, wherein one side of the purse people will see a goldfish with a treasure chest and bubbles. Turn one side and you’re looking directly at the goldfish and the side of the treasure chest and so on.
“I sat here with a cutting board, duct tape rolls and something like pizza cutters and my laptop,” Jessica says. “I’m making fish and cutting them out. I can’t tell you how many hours it took me. I was cutting, pasting and throwing things away. I had to get up a couple times and walk away.”
And there was damage suffered throughout the process.
“The thing about using anything on duct tape is it makes it very sticky,” Anjanette says. “All of my scissors are completely destroyed; all the pins are sticky. Anything metal that touches duct tape gets destroyed.”
What was really frustrating was Jessica’s underskirt, which was represented by tiny cutouts of fish scales. Hundreds were made and attached to wax paper to be used as a foundation. Later when the wax paper was peeled to be attached to other scales … the wax paper wouldn’t come off.
“I read somewhere that if you stick duct tape on wax paper it will peel right off,” Jessica said. “We made hundreds of scales and when we had to peel the wax paper off – it didn’t peel off.”
Gummy Gawking, Stuck Silence
On the big day, Giancarlo had to delicately load Jessica into his car and away they went to the Dolphin Hotel at Disney World, but first a stop at Chili’s … for dinner.
The customers were treated to a show. Giancarlo and Jessica didn’t feel like entertaining.
“There was this man on the bench and he started laughing,” Giancarlo says. “He asked if we work for Disney because of the colorful outfits and everything.”
“We walked into Chili’s and it got dead quiet,” Jessica adds. “After awhile, we were like ‘Ok, you can stop looking at us now, we’re eating dinner.’”
But people did ask if they could have pictures taken with the couple and they obliged.
As one would expect, getting around wasn’t easy and as the couple found out duct tape doesn’t just slide when sitting down to dinner.
“I needed a backup sound like they have on those trucks – all those beeping sounds – because I couldn’t just sit down and slide in that dress. I had to back into the booth,” Jessica says.
More looks came when the couple showed up at the prom. Several friends knew what they were doing, but many students and teachers didn’t.
“When we showed up at prom, they were like ‘Oh my God.’” Jessica says.
“They couldn’t believe it was duct tape at first; some of the administrators thought it was tarp because of the blue color,” Giancarlo says. “Our close friends really loved it. The administrators were really supportive.”
Somewhere in the middle of the prom, tape started peeling on Giancarlo’s pants and an emergency repair – using duct tape of course – had to be performed.
Now the couple is taking the act on the road posing for pictures, doing interviews for the media and becoming local celebrities – simply because Giancarlo asked his girlfriend to prom.
“Hopefully I get some brownie points with this,” he says.
“I guuuuueeeessss,” Jessica responds.
Duct tape prom numbers
2,626: The number of scales on Jessica’s underskirt and Giancarlo’s tie.
418: The cost in dollars for a chiffon prom dress at Macy’s
250: The cost in dollars to make the entire outfits, including tape, cloth, shoes and accessories.
170: The amount of hours spent making the dress, suit and accessories.
38: The number of rolls used
22: The amount of different colors offered by Duck Tape brand, including four “pattern” Duck tapes in tie-dye and camouflage colors.
12: The amount of rolls remaining which had useable tape left on the roll
11: The amount of blue rolls used.
3.99: The cost for each roll of Duck Tape brand ($2.50 per roll with gathered coupons.)
1: An industrial-size roll that was used
To vote for Jessica and Giancarlo, go to http://www.stuckatprom.com
Also, view Jessica and Giancarlo’s facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jessica-Giancarlo-2010-Stuck-At-Prom-Duck-Brand-Duct-Tape-Entry/115290665161939?ref=ts
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