North Farmington High School on 13 Mile opened in 1961 and holds about 1,250 students, and its seniors go to prom the way seniors do everywhere: as a table. Six friends, six dates, one limousine, one photograph on somebody’s lawn. In that photograph six rentals from one rack look like a table. Six from six different places look like strangers who arrived together.
Come in as the table
All six on one afternoon. One color for the table, black or midnight blue, decided once with all six standing in it, and then each boy is fitted on his own. The only thing that differs is the tie, matched to each date’s dress from the photograph on his phone. That’s the lawn picture.
Six shoulders
Each boy gets his own jacket put on him. The shoulder decides whether it stays on. A 40 regular and a 38 long can wear the same black and each still look like himself, and that’s the difference between a table that rented together and six boys who happened to match.
Three weeks before, shoes in hand
Three weeks out is the visit, with the actual shoes in a bag. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, hems each boy to the pair he brought; a hem is a small job he can often do while you wait, and the three weeks are for whichever boy turns out to need more than a hem.
Also for Farmington Hills: The Groom in a Tuxedo, the Party in Suits. More on tuxedo rentals, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
