• Auckland Girls’ Grammar student Kamiya David-Poimafisi, 16, wore her mum’s ball dress from 1998 to her school ball.
• Some families spend thousands on the school ball.
• As friends paid up to $200 for a dress, Kamiya’s only needed minor alterations, done by a family member.
• An online post about Kamiya wearing her mum’s dress went viral on social media.

When a then 16-year-old Rose-Marie David started scribbling out a design for a dress to wear to the school ball, she never imagined her daughter would wear that same dress almost 30 years later.

“I did design at school, so I designed my own dress. I’m not the best sewer, so [Samoan fashion designer] Paula Chan sewed it for me,” David told the Herald.

She was a sixth form (now year 12) student at Marist Sisters College in Auckland’s Mt Albert when she wore the dress at the school ball in 1998.

“I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, so I just held onto it all these years.

“I grew out of it ages ago,” she laughed.

Rose David pictured in her ball dress in 1998.

‘I just fell in love’

Fast-forward to last year when her 16-year-old daughter Kamiya David-Poimafisi, an Auckland Girls’ Grammar student, spotted the gown in her mum’s wardrobe.

“I just fell in love. I was like: ‘I want to wear this to my ball’,” she said.

Asked if any alterations needed to be made to the dress, Kamiya - also known as Kammy - said: “I had it taken in.”

“Just a little bit,” her mum cuts in, laughing.

She also added a split.

Kammy said she enjoyed sharing with her friends that she was wearing something special instead of buying a dress for the ball.

Kamiya David-Poimafisi, 16, wearing her mum's dress from 1998 to her school ball.

With some parents forking out thousands for their children to attend the school ball, Kamiya said her choice of dress wasn’t only special, it was smart.

Some of her friends had spent between $170 to $200 for a new dress, she said. The alterations to her mother’s original dress were done by a family member, who did not charge.

“Whenever my friends would ask me where I got my dress from I would say: ‘It’s my mum’s dress’. They would say: ‘Oh, I wish my mum had kept their dress’. It was very uncommon.”

After the ball last week, the family shared photos of Kammy in her dress - as well as old photos of Rose wearing it in 1998.

Kammy’s makeup artist - Leexglam - also posted the photos on social media, attracting thousands of reactions and comments from people who loved the idea.

A new family tradition

Kammy said many of her mum’s high school friends had got in touch to say that seeing her in her mum’s dress was nostalgic and brought back memories of their ball days.

Rose David pictured with her daughter Kamiya David-Poimafisi, 16, who wore Rose's self-designed 1998 ball dress to her recent school ball.

Her mum said others had said it had brought a tear to their eye.

“It took them back to when they got to wear their ball dresses and they thought it was so sweet how she’s wearing mine.”

Kammy is aiming to study business management after high school, with the dream of opening her own clothing business one day.

She said her mum was a big inspiration for her and had been a huge support all her life.

“I just thought wearing her dress would be a cool moment because one day she won’t be here. And when I’m older and I have my own kids and I look back to my ball days, then I can remember that my first time at the ball, I wore my mum’s ball dress.”

As for the dress, Kammy said she hoped she had started a new family tradition.

“I would like my daughter to wear it one day, if I have one, hopefully.”