Old co-worker of mine posted her daughter’s prom pictures- and I realized that she was in two different dresses- one for dinner before and one for the prom. I guess it’s a continuation of the two wedding dress phenomenon I’ve been seeing.
When I see crazy things like this, I try to imagine...in what scenario would it make sense? Is this scenario the one that makes sense, or did someone else see it, think "oh, that's a thing now, I'll do it too!" and eventually no one knows why we do this stupid thing other than "just because."
It'd make sense if they're combining photos from two events. Last year's prom was cancelled, but they still took photos with the dress (maybe in the early days when things were just starting to get locked down, they decided to quickly get some photos at a restaurant in case prom got cancelled; or maybe the photos were taken later when things opened up a bit...at a restaurant table is one of the few places where you could be at in public with your mask off). The next year (we have to assume the prior year photos were for junior prom) there's a new dress (fair enough, maybe she didn't fit in it, wasn't her style anymore, any number of reasons can actually make sense). New photos. Both sets are posted.
Someone sees this, goes "oh, we're doing two dresses for prom now" and the prom industry squeals with glee.