The most useful thing to know about this shop before driving over is a policy it states itself: it registers its pageant gowns and sells only one of each style per pageant. That is the practical argument for buying from a store instead of a website. In Alabama pageant competition, two girls in the same dress on the same stage is a real risk, and a registry is how a store keeps that from happening. If you are shopping for a titled pageant, ask them to check the book for your specific competition and date.
A gown season that starts in the fall
The store describes what it sells as pageant, prom, and Mardi Gras gowns. In Mobile, that order makes sense. Mardi Gras here is the oldest official Carnival celebration in the United States, traced to 1703, when Mobile was the capital of French Louisiana. The season opens in November with the International Carnival Ball and the Camellia Ball, where the city’s debutantes are presented, and mystic society balls run to a fixed code: white tie and tails for men, full-length gowns for women. Some societies treat their balls as an extension of the debutante season.
So the first serious formal-wear shopping in this city happens months before prom, and a shop on Azalea Road is working two calendars — ball gowns from late fall through Fat Tuesday, prom dresses in the spring. Mobile also hosts the Distinguished Young Women national finals each June, at the Saenger Theatre downtown, which keeps the formal calendar from ever fully closing.
Brands that list this address
Four labels name this store on their own retailer locators: Ava Presley, Colette, Dave & Johnny, and Tiffany Designs. Jovani’s retailer directory lists it as well, at the same Azalea Road address. Older business-directory entries name several other lines; treat those as unconfirmed and ask by phone what is actually hanging this season.
Where it sits, and who shops it
Azalea Road runs south off Airport Boulevard near McGregor Avenue, down past Cottage Hill Road to Government Boulevard. The store’s block is in Airmont, a minute or two from Airport Boulevard, which is Mobile’s busiest commercial corridor and connects the Bel Air Mall area to the big-box retail farther west. You are not fighting a mall parking deck to get here.
W. P. Davidson High School shares the store’s 36609 ZIP code — it is at 3900 Pleasant Valley Road, off the Cottage Hill side, with about 1,470 students. Murphy High is a few minutes east on South Carlen Street. McGill-Toolen Catholic, LeFlore Magnet, Williamson, and Ben C. Rain are all inside the city; Baker and Theodore pull from west and south Mobile County. For most of them, this is a drive measured in minutes, not an hour.
Hours, and a warning about the old web address
- Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Friday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Sunday: closed
Those hours come from the store’s directory listings, so call before a long drive, especially in January and February. There is no live store website: the old puttingontheritzonline.com address has been taken over and now loads an unrelated offshore gambling page. It has nothing to do with the shop. Facebook and Instagram are where new arrivals get posted. Directory records list the business as locally owned and date it to 1984.