If you shopped for a formal in the Shoals in the last few decades, you probably know this store by its old name. Ashley Griffith bought Juanita’s Fashions in the spring of 2025, renamed it The Dress Shoppe, and in June 2025 moved it out of Muscle Shoals and across the river into downtown Florence. The stock followed the sign: prom, bridal, mothers’ and social-occasion dresses, and tuxedo rentals in one room.
Juanita’s started on Woodward Avenue in Sheffield before spending years at 708 E. Second Street in Muscle Shoals. The new address is 116 E. Mobile Street, on Mobile Plaza — the cobblestone block just east of Court Street, in the middle of the historic downtown commercial district. Same drive for most of the Colbert County side; a much shorter one for anyone already in Florence.
What the store carries
Two prom labels are confirmed on their manufacturers’ own retailer lists: Clarisse and Jessica Angel. On the bridal side, Calla Blanche lists the 116 E. Mobile address as an authorized shop. Tuxedo rentals run through Jim’s Formal Wear, which names the store as an affiliated rental location — useful if a date’s coat and the dress need to be matched in the same visit rather than in two towns.
Beyond that, the honest answer is that the store is only a few seasons into this address and doesn’t publish an inventory. Griffith’s stated aim on the shop’s own site is quality dresses at reasonable prices for every special occasion, and the Facebook listing puts the store in the $$ range. Call before driving if you need a specific designer or size — the shop’s Instagram and its website list slightly different Saturday closing times, and both agree it is closed Sunday and Monday. Appointments are available and are the sensible move in March and April.
Who ends up here
Florence High School, the Falcons, is the largest single feeder — roughly 1,100 students, and the closest of any high school to this address. Lauderdale County brings in Brooks in Killen, Central and Rogers and Wilson out in the county, Lexington, Lauderdale County High in Rogersville, and Waterloo. Across the O’Neal Bridge it is Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Deshler in Tuscumbia, Colbert Heights, Colbert County High in Leighton, and Cherokee. Prom season in this part of Alabama lands in the spring, well before Northeastern proms, and the same store is fitting bridal parties and tuxedos at the same time.
The alternative, if the Shoals doesn’t have it, is about seventy miles east on U.S. 72 to Huntsville. That is the trip this store exists to save.
Downtown, on the day of the appointment
Mobile Plaza is a short walk from the Lauderdale County courthouse and from the University of North Alabama campus, so parking downtown is street parking and it tightens up at lunch and on First Friday nights. Court Street’s restaurants and shops — Billy Reid’s flagship has been at 114 N. Court since 2004 — are a block away, which makes a fitting appointment easy to pair with lunch. One piece of trivia for anyone who spent time downtown a decade ago: this same address was a small music venue, called simply 116 E. Mobile, until it closed at the end of 2018. In July the plaza outside fills up for Handy on the Plaza, the downtown kickoff to the W.C. Handy Music Festival.