If there’s anything that we learned from growing up on a diet of teen movies, it’s that prom is an important rite of passage – see Pretty In Pink, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You and, ahem, Britney’s Crossroads for evidence.
What these films neglected to teach us, though, is that once the spray tans have faded, the photos are popped into a dusty Facebook album and the big day is just a haze of worryingly fluorescent alcohol, it’s almost 100 percent guaranteed that you will end up regretting your choice of prom dress. Whether you spent hours scouring the internet for something with a long enough train and the requisite diamante to flammable fabric ratio or just ended up buying the first thing you tried on in Coast (guilty), the likelihood is that you won’t look back on your prom as your sartorial peak.
There's always one classmate, though, that the years will look upon fondly, their timeless prom choice making them a swan among tulle-engulfed geese. And for the class of 2013 at Malibu High School (which is, we can assure you, a real high school and not a name grabbed from one of the above teen classics), that classmate was Gigi Hadid, who has revealed the story behind her unfairly chic prom dress to W magazine.
Explaining that she 'never bought anything for prom' thanks to her ex-model mother's 'beautiful closet' filled with designer pieces, Gigi revealed, 'My senior year, I wore a red Hervé Leger dress. Not the normal bandage, it was the one where they had the short sleeves and a beautiful braided neckline and stuff. I loved it. It was red, bright red and short.'
To add insult to injury, the then 18-year-old Gigi didn't even go for an uncomfortably Elnett-ed up-do, dodgy hair extensions or a chic tiara, choosing instead to wear her hair in easy loose waves.
And if you're wondering why Gigi isn't drowning in metres of man-made fibres like you and your teenage pals, it's simply a matter of practicality. 'In Malibu, we wear short dresses to prom because we live at the beach. The long dress thing gets a little in your way in the sand and stuff.'
Gigi Hadid, we are not worthy.
READ MORE: Gigi Hadid: 'Girls Have The Right To Fight Back Too'