Every Hockaday girl waits eagerly to walk across graduation terrace in her white dress and flowered hat.  Graduation is a special event for every high school senior; however, the Hockaday seniors have the extra task of choosing the perfect graduation dress.

The long process of choosing the dress begins in June or July the summer before graduation. A panel of Hockaday senior mothers and their daughters chooses five dresses of varying styles to be shown to and voted on by the senior class.

Each year Hockaday alternates between the department store Stanley Korshack and Neiman Marcus to design dresses for the seniors. This year is Neiman Marcus’ turn.

“Our dress has a very classic look,” senior Kendall says of the winning dress design, “it is elegant with a unique touch.”

The voting process is one that has been successful for the past few years.

“I think this voting system is efficient, and above all fair, taking into account all of each person’s choices,” senior sponsor Rebakah Calhoun says about the voting process.

Once the five dresses are chosen, selected senior girls model the dresses for the rest of the class during a form meeting.

“I really liked the fashion show,” senior Virginia says, “it was great to see the different dresses on various body types.”

Senior Regen loved modeling for her classmates.  “It was fun showing the dresses to everyone,” Regan says, “and I liked getting the inside scoop.”

Once all the dresses are modeled for the grade, each girl ranks each dress in order of preference.  When going through this process, Calhoun says, “You are trying to choose the dress that will look best on the class as a whole.”

– Nina