Most prom outfits start with fabric, careful measurements, and a trip to a clothing store. Sophie Chai and Jeremiah Constantine started with rolls of duct tape and ended with two $10,000 scholarship prizes.

The teens took first place in the dress and tux categories of the 2026 Duck Brand Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest. Chai, from Union City, California, created a pink and white strawberry cake-inspired gown. Constantine, from Westland, Michigan, built a dramatic red and black tuxedo influenced by couture fashion.

The contest asks students to create and wear original prom outfits using Duck Brand duct tape or crafting tape. The 2026 competition marked the 26th year of a scholarship program that has turned an everyday repair product into material for surprisingly complex fashion.

This year's contest attracted 161 dress and tux submissions, according to Duck Brand. Judges narrowed those entries to 10 finalists before public voting helped decide the first-place winners. The final group included five dress designs and five tux designs from students across the country.

Sophie Chai Turned a Strawberry Cake Into a Statement

Duck Brand / Chai's winning dress looks playful at first glance. Pink and white layers create the appearance of an elaborate strawberry cake, complete with decorative details that could easily be mistaken for frosting.

The 17-year-old James Logan High School graduate said the idea came from her experience with beauty standards and expectations surrounding femininity. She wanted the cake to represent pressure on girls to appear pretty, sweet, polished, and carefully decorated for other people.

Chai spent about 250 hours working on the outfit over roughly five months. She used 35 rolls of duct tape and constructed a metal wire petticoat to create the gown's large shape. She then placed sheets covered with pink and white tape over the structure.

The smaller details required plenty of patience too. Chai shaped bows and icing decorations individually and made a duct tape corset for the dress. She completed the outfit with matching heels, a headband, and an oversized fork that became one of the design's most important pieces.

That fork was not simply an amusing prop beside a cake-themed dress. Chai used it to show how beauty expectations can feel consuming. She explained that girls can feel pushed to dress or look a certain way just to feel feminine enough.

However, building it was not exactly comfortable. Chai told KTVU that the metal structure and heavy materials made the outfit difficult to handle. Transporting the oversized dress for its photo session also became a challenge after months of construction.

The effort paid off before the final results even arrived. Images and videos of Chai's creation spread quickly online. KTVU reported in early July that content featuring the dress had collected more than 139,000 likes on TikTok and 40,000 on Instagram as supporters rallied behind her entry.

Chai had found the competition while searching for scholarships in January. She told KTVU that she quickly told her mother about the idea and headed out to buy duct tape. Months later, the project earned her the contest's $10,000 Dress First Prize.

Jeremiah Constantine Brought Couture Drama to Duct Tape

GTN / Constantine, another who won the prize, took a very different route with his winning tux.

Instead of soft cake colors and an oversized skirt, the Michigan teen created a sharp red and black outfit built around bold shapes, patterned trousers, metallic accessories, and a floor-length cape.

His inspiration came from the Met Gala, couture fashion, and dramatic red carpet silhouettes. Constantine wanted his outfit to feel tailored and elevated rather than looking like a craft project made from an unusual material.

Constantine used 46 rolls of duct tape to complete the design. The project took 61 hours, considerably less than Chai's 250-hour build but still enough time to show how complicated the construction became. He created large panels by layering strips of duct tape together until they behaved more like fabric. Constantine then used patterns to shape those panels and assemble the clothing. That process allowed him to approach the outfit more like a garment than a collection of taped pieces.

Local Michigan station WDIV featured him before voting closed, highlighting his duct tape tux and his pursuit of the $10,000 fashion school scholarship. The project gave him a chance to test fashion ideas using material that rarely appears anywhere near a sewing studio.