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ORSETT, England — Lisa Pickin arrived in style at her 2008 high school prom in this middle-class town an hour east of London. The stretch Jeep limo, lilac ball gown and accessories cost her parents about GBP 550, or $1,080. Her upswept blond curls took her aunt two hours to fashion.

Britain, the land of school uniforms, rigorous exams and ivy-covered school halls, is embracing an American invasion: the high school prom.

British teenagers say they've seen the events in movies like "American Pie" and television shows such as "The O.C.," and they want the chance to dress up and rent limousines themselves. That means a new reason for Britons to worry about the dilution of their culture, a new burden on parents' pocketbooks, and new businesses selling prom essentials such as tuxedos and corsages.

"It's getting more and more elaborate," says Keith Rider, who manages a banquet hall here that many schools hire for the big dance. "I'm 40 and we never had anything like this when we left school."

Proms in the United States began in the 1930s, the invention of teachers trying to help young people make the transition to adulthood, says Amy Best, a sociologist and expert on youth culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The dances largely fell out of fashion in the 1960s but came back in the 1980s and remain popular, she says.

Proms began crossing over to the United Kingdom several years ago and keep growing in popularity. Ricky Turrell, a photographer in southeast England, has 54 proms booked this year. Proms are practically a daily occurrence somewhere or other in England from May 1 till well into July.

Many American adults cringe when they remember the unfortunate dresses and awkward dates from their own proms. Britons, meanwhile, are adopting the prom at its most traditional, with prom queens and kings and professional photographers favoring pastel backdrops. In some schools, proms are replacing more modest British traditions like the "leavers disco," where kids turn up at the school gym in jeans.

Recently, when partying students vandalized cars after their prom in a town in Wales, residents complained, says Martyn Peters, an official of Neath Port Talbot County. Peters passed on the complaints to the head of the Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School.

"It's a new thing that's come over from America, and a lot of the community don't buy into it at all," Peters says. School officials didn't respond to requests for comment.

Sue Clarke and her husband at first balked when their 16-year-old son, Michael, begged them to rent him a bright yellow Lamborghini plus driver for prom night. But they gave in after their son promised to study harder in return.

"We didn't have proms or things like that when we were younger," says the 39-year-old Clarke, who, all told, spent $1,180 on Michael's prom. She says it was worth every bit of it to see her son so happy.

Old-line department-store chain John Lewis added a line of prom dresses this year, and tuxedo-rental stores report a jump in business from kids this time of year. Ruth Eckhardt, owner of Ruth, a dress shop in London, imports prom dresses from the United States because she can't find British makers. After customs duties, the dresses are marked up to about $275, from about $100 in the United States. Eckhardt says she travels to U.S. trade shows four times a year to pick out the frocks.

Britain's vibrant celebrity culture helps amp up the teens' prom styles. Weekly magazines feature photos of American celebrities and "wags," the British shorthand for "wives and girlfriends" of local soccer stars, who make headlines for their outrageous clothing and shopping sprees.

Tom Kendall, 16, says American TV shows such as "The O.C." and MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" provide a "fairy tale" view of dances and parties that British teens like. "The O.C.," a Fox show now in reruns on Britain's E4 channel, chronicles the life of affluent teens in Orange County, Calif. "My Super Sweet 16" airs nearly every day in Britain, showing teens preparing for lavish birthday parties.