Home & Away stars Rhiannon Fish and Samara Weaving pose up in prom-style dresses to promote Seven’s new reality series, Formal Wars. Picture: Tarsha Hosking/Channel 7 Supplied
- School formal to go under the microscope
- Parents to be charged with choosing their student’s dress
- Rhiannon Fish and Reece Mastin’s very much PDA
IT’S the stuff of fashion nightmares for those getting on in years, but for this year’s graduates the school formal just got a whole lot scarier.
The cheeky twist on the annual rite-of-passage is set to be a Brideszillas-style cringefest for those left to be dressed by their less than fashionable folks, while turning the spotlight on the current trends in this booming $3 billion events business.
Filming is currently underway for the fly-on-the-wall series, to air in 2013, designed to test the family bond like never before.
Seven’s head of production, Brad Lyons said: “The school formal is rapidly becoming the biggest day in a teenager’s life, so the reactions when we tell them their parents are in control have been priceless.”
Created along the lines of reality series, Don’t Tell The Bride (where the groom is in charge of organising the big day), parents hijack their daughter’s formal, deciding on everything from her dress to her date.
Styling up to promote the production, Home & Away stars Samara Weaving and Rhiannon Fish, both remember their formal and fashion choices fondly.
“I went to a few,” Weaving revealed, of her 2009 graduation. “It was our mission to go to as many formals as you could as there were only a few schools around (in Canberra).”
For the 20-year-old TV favourite, it was her first taste of red carpet glamour shared with her best friends instead of industry peers.
“I hadn’t been to the Logies at that point, so this was a first glimpse at that sort of glamour.”
Her full formal schedule meant four frocks, including the $150 black maxi dress she wore to her own school’s event, as well as a red mini and “rocking a gold number.”
Fish also kept her budget conservative but if she had her time again would change one thing: her date for the big occasion, new rocker boyfriend Reece Mastin.
“If I could go back in time and take him I certainly would. He’s had several offers to go to other girls’ (fans) formals and a few marriage proposals too, so he does okay,” she laughed.