B.C. student wears burlap dress to prom for charity … and it’s gorgeous

It's a mother's duty to tell her daughter that she will look good in anything – even a potato sack!

That may have been precisely how one B.C. teen got the idea to dress in burlap for her high school prom – and shockingly, she looked just as stunning as the girls in expensive dresses.

The idea came to Surrey's Courtney Barich when she was out shopping for a prom dress earlier this year and she saw the price tags on some of the dresses. She became unsure if she wanted to drop at least $700 on a dress she would wear once, and her supportive mom of course told her she would look good in anything.

That’s when the idea hit her. She didn’t need a $700 dress, all she needed was the cheapest fabric she could find, and at an astonishing $3 for the entire sheet, burlap was her fabric of choice.

She then sought out designer Suman Faulkner of Lata Design who made the burlap dress.

Barich's friends didn't understand and questioned her about her idea for the dress.

"They thought like 'potato-sack burlap?' They were all kind of confused by the concept," Barich told CTV News Vancouver. "They're not going to expect a dress like this."

Barich’s ultimate plan was to wear the burlap dress in an effort to raise $10,000 for St. Martin De Porres Orphanage in the Philippines, which she visited in the spring and where she witnessed the children living in poverty and sleeping in garbage bags.

[ More Buzz: Cyclist held up at gunpoint films incident on GoPro camera ]

Even her prom date decided to get in on the burlap action as he matched her with a burlap vest and bow tie, happy to support the cause.

Barich looked stunning strutting around the prom in her burlap dress, happy to have saved money that could be put to better use, like helping those orphans in the Philippines. We should all take a page from this young philanthropist’s book and realize it’s not always about the price tag.

Barich, having raised $7,500 so far, plans to return to the orphanage to visit in September. She’s hoping by then to raise the full $10,000. Click here to see Barich’s beautiful burlap prom dress in some of her Facebook photos.

It’s true what her mother said – she looked just as good in “a burlap sack."

Want the latest buzz before it goes viral?
Follow @YDailyBuzz on Twitter!