1985

The 1985 Fancy Dress took place on March 8th with a theme of “The Mink Dynasty.” The Count Basie Orchestra, ‘A’ Train, and Otis Day and the Knights performed for the students that weekend. Tickets this year cost $30 per couple. Other spectacles of the night included a Chinese dance troupe, fortune tellers, and jugglers. The decor used to adorn the Warner Center and Doremus Gym was chosen to elicit a “mood that brings thoughts of old, dynastic China.” To accomplish this, the SAB used images of colorful exotic birds, Chinese lanterns, bamboo fences, goldfish ponds, dragon motifs, and cherry blossom trees. Similar to last year’s expectations, the black-tie dress code was strictly enforced by the committee (Puryear 7). Since the transition from costume attire to a black-tie dress code, the theme has been announced later and later into the year as they no longer needed to account for costume preparation time.

1985 at Washington and Lee University was the first year women enrolled alongside the overwhelming male population. However, the SAB that oversaw the organization and execution of Fancy Dress, was still made up of 60 male members. There were also local dance classes in town that many students attended to prepare for Fancy Dress. These dance classes included lessons on the jitterbug, waltz, tango, rhumba, cha-cha, and the fox trot (Richardson 4).

There was minimal information in Washington and Lee publications about the student reaction to the 1985 Fancy Dress. It can be assumed that attendance of women from surrounding institutions like Sweet Briar and Mary Baldwin decreased as male students now had dates sitting right across from them in class. It can also be said that 1985 marked the beginning of couples on campus, and thus the beginning of the Fancy Dress bid process, an aspect of the Fancy Dress season during which invitations were extended from men to their potential dates. The evolution of the social stigma and pressure around getting dates to Fancy Dress likely had its beginning stages once women joined the student body.