Last Saturday (11 March) was the first of our two pop-up shops for 2023 kindly hosted by St Albans’ Girls School for Year 11s in Hertfordshire.

We arrived to a queue of excited young people eager to choose their prom dress. Thanks to some amazing donations they had over 500 new and preloved prom dresses to choose from and 90 beautiful dresses were selected during the day.It was great to also be able to add some hair and beauty goodies donated by charity The Hygiene Bank.

Most turn up with a parent, Carer or friend but not everyone has someone that can easily bring them. Big shout out to the staff from one Herts school who turn up early every year with their school minibus full of students and patiently wait for them to try loads on!

After all the planning, the day as usual went in a flash. It’s busy, sometimes emotional and there’s a lot of queuing for changing rooms. One-third of the attendees told us that without All Dressed Up they’d be missing out on going to their prom with friends this summer. And that’s why we love doing this. But we couldn’t have done it without our amazing hosts at STAGS and our loyal group of volunteers.

Next stop Luton, where we’ll be doing it all again for Bedfordshire students.