A teenager in Los Angeles won the annual Duck Brand “Stuck at Prom” duct tape ballgown contest and earned a college scholarship.
In a news release, Duck Brand said that Karla Torres won the Best Dress prize for the contest. Torres was one of two grand prize winners. The other was Ian Hernandez Rojas from Utah, who won Best Tux. Both Torres and Rojas won a $10,000 scholarship prize.
Runners-up each won a $500 scholarship, according to KABC.
The company said Torres’ dress was made with 14 rolls of pink, white, and gold Duck Tape. She spent roughly about 120 hours making the prom dress which was completed with accessories like a clutch purse and fan.
“This dress is inspired by 18th-century French art that I saw at the Getty Museum,” Torres said in the news release. “I was captivated by the amount of gold and extravagant paintings they had on display. I am fascinated by clothes and how they have evolved through the course of history. Although we are in the 21st century, it doesn’t stop us from dressing up from any time period.”
Torres graduated last month from Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights, California, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“My dress is going to be all the way across the country,” Torres said, according to the Times. “It’s a national contest. ... Being selected as the only Californian, and more specifically even [from] Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, it’s really cool.”
Torres is the first in her family to go to college, according to the newspaper. She said the scholarship will be a huge help with her education along with financial aid. She will be attending California State University Fullerton in the fall, according to KABC.
She plans to study business marketing with a focus on the fashion industry, according to the LA Times.
“After this competition, I hope to be interning in a fashion company in the future,” Torres said, according to the newspaper. “That’s something I am interested in and always will be interested.”
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