Design Your Own Prom Dress Online

Make a one-of-a-kind dress that's just your style

Prom dresses in shop window
Stuart McCall/Getty Images

Prom dresses are special and sentimental. And you want to stand out and look like no one else on this special night. You can design your own prom dress via online sites and you'll have a custom dress that's relatively affordable for prom night. If you know what color, style, and fabric you want, you can design the prom dress of your dreams with a little help from these handy websites. And if you are a sewing whiz, check out resources for free patterns and ideas for creating prom accessories.

Before you make your choices on the website you choose, it's a good idea to have yourself measured by a dressmaker or seamstress so you get the size just right. Try on dresses at a store to find out which styles and fabrics look best on you before you make choices for your own design. You should start this process several months in advance of your prom to allow plenty of time for your custom dress to be made.

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FameAndPartners.com

Prom dresses in shop window
Stuart McCall/Getty Images

Fame and Partners has taken online dress designing and made it totally chic. Its design tool is available via its website, and it's geared toward bridesmaids, but you could easily use the styles and colors to make a prom dress. It also has a nifty sharing tool so you can share the design with your friends and family to see what they think before you commit. 

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Olivia Luca

Olivia Luca's design studio was made for girls with a creative eye who aren't so handy with a needle and thread. It will custom-sew prom, homecoming, or special occasion dresses and has a handy tool for designing your dress; you don't even have to know how to draw. Olivia Luca's online design tool lets you select your skin tone, bodice style, skirt style, length, fabric, and color. You can add sparkle and flair as you wish.

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Lunss Custom Couture

 At Lunss, you start by sending photos of dresses you like that you've collected from Pinterest, Google, and other online sources along with your ideas for your custom dress. On the Lunss site, you choose fabric, embellishments, colors, and accessories. The site offers guidance for taking your measurements, too, if you have not had them taken by a professional. After you submit the design you want and your photos, you will be contacted by a designer, who will discuss all the details of the design with you before it's made. 

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Dornink

Dornink is a couture design house based in Des Moines, Iowa, that specializes in bridal, cocktail, and evening wear. It will either customize one of its designs to your specifications or you can get a completely custom dress. During a consultation, you discuss what style and fabric you would like, and Dornink gives you guidance on your choices. Dornink requires you to come to the design studio for fittings, so you can only consider this option if you live near Des Moines unless you can work out other arrangements.

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PIOL.com

PIOL.com has the simplest online dress design tool we've come across. And it really helps you narrow your color choices down by asking you what your hair, skin, and eye colors are. Then you're given a bunch of fabrics that will match perfectly with your coloring. The dress silhouettes are somewhat limited, so you may want to use this for semi-formal and homecoming dress designs.

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Free Dress Patterns Online

Rain Blanken is a DIY Fashion master. If you’re into sewing and you want the satisfaction of designing your own prom dress from scratch, check out her compilation of free dress patterns. If some of these patterns don’t seem formal enough, remember that using luxurious fabric and embellishing your dress with crystals, beads, and sequins can instantly up the formal factor.

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DiY Prom Clothing

Perhaps designing a dress is a little too much for you … perhaps you’d like to try your hand at sewing a clutch, creating cute hair sticks or some DIY jewelry instead. Rain Blanken has put together an entire section on how to custom-make prom accessories, and they’re so easy that … heck, anyone can do them.