It’s no secret that dances are expensive. Girls often spend upwards of $1,000 dollars on tickets, shoes, a dress, hair and makeup.  A large portion of that money is on a dress that more often than not is only worn once.  Hailey Burns ’16 has been working to combat that with her new consignment business, Gown Around.

Gown Around is within Dress Code, a popular store for prom dress purchases. Girls can bring in their lightly worn long dresses to Burns, and if they’re in good condition, they’re put in the Gown Around section of Dress Code. When they sell, the previous owner gets a cut of the sale.

“My brother actually was the one that gave me the idea to originally rent my dress and my friends’ dresses out to make a continuous profit,” Burns said. “When I met the owner of Dress Code, it turned from rental to consignment.”

Many girls turn to renting dresses, most popularly at Rent the Runway, in order to cut costs but that can come with its own issues. Last year when the Counties Assembly dance was postponed, many that rented dresses had to find new dresses because their original dress wasn’t available for the new date. With Gown Around, girls can still get dresses at a discounted price, but do not have the risk of not owning the dress.

Since Burns opened in January, she has been very happy with her progress. “It’s been very successful so far. My section for Gown Around in Dress Code has expanded from a couple gowns to an entire section of the store and sales are being made all the time,” Burns said.