Senior Emily Chiu will not be attending Leyden’s 2013 prom in a typical, store bought, cliche, look-alike prom dress. Faced with attending the Anime Central convention in Rosemont the same day as prom, Chiu was faced with a dilemma.

“At first I didn’t even want to go to prom because there’s an anime convention the same day,” admitted Emily.

However, after she had a dream about missing out on dressing up for prom, she decided to do both.

With her creativity and smarts, she came up with a solution.

“I decided that I would have a cosplay (dressing up as a character) that also looked like a prom dress,” Chiu said.

“Because I couldn’t find a costume already made online that I liked, I decided to make my own.”

Known for her 4 foot sculpture of a man exposing the love for another person in his heart, which has been displayed in the Nardini Library, Chiu continues to show that she can complete any task she takes on.

The white empire waist dress with gold detailing that she created is meant to look like anime character Princess Serena’s dress from the Japanese manga series, Sailor Moon.

“I chose Princess Serena because as a kid Sailor Moon was probably the first anime I had ever watched,” Chiu said.

Never having made clothing before, Emily’s only help was her sister’s sewing machine.

“I’ve never used a sewing machine,” she said, “but I have hand sewn before and I’m pretty good at it.”

Chiu said that about 48 hours have been put into the dress! As a graduating senior, she put all this time in on top of preparing for her finals.

“People should try to make their own dress,” Chiu said. “You get a really happy feeling when everything starts looking right.”

So seniors, keep an eye out for Chiu’s one of a kind dress during prom this Friday.