Downtown families will tell you prom shopping happens on a street, not in a store. Santee Street is that street. Hermz holds two addresses on the same block of it, both listed in the footer of its own website, which makes it one of the easier names on Santee to find and one of the harder ones to miss once you are walking it.
Hermz keeps its catalog simple. Its site splits the floor into prom, evening, and pageant and couture, and the prom section is the one that gets the top billing. The brand menu names Jasz, and a large share of the catalog is listed under Portia and Scarlett, the label behind the PS style numbers that fill its listings. That pairing points to the kind of prom the store is built for: fitted silhouettes, sequins on velvet, open backs, trains, the dresses that photograph well under a ballroom's lights.
Pricing on the site's best sellers runs from roughly $400 up past $1,000. That is not bargain-bin territory, and it is not meant to be. These are designer gowns sold on a block where shoppers can compare a lot of options in a single afternoon, which is exactly why families drive in.
What a Hermz gown looks like on paper
The store's listings lean on the designers' own descriptions, and some of them are a fun read. One Portia and Scarlett ball gown on the Hermz site is written up this way:
The Cinderella is a showstopper, the gown is fairy tale magic with its bell shape skirt and deep pluging vee front detailed with a crystal boader wrapping around the waist line of the skirt.
That is the tone of the whole floor. Big skirts for the student who wants a grand entrance. Mermaid fits in 3D sequin for the one who wants to be photographed from every angle. Silk columns with a high slit for the senior who wants something quieter but still sharp. The pageant and couture section pushes the drama further still, a good place to start for anyone whose prom has a red-carpet arrival.
Students here come from all over the basin. Santee Education Complex sits just south of the Fashion District, and Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights, Jefferson High in South Los Angeles and Belmont High west of downtown are all LAUSD campuses a few neighborhoods over. Huntington Park, South Gate and Bell are close enough that a weekend dress run barely needs planning. The trip is the point: park once, walk Santee, and leave with a dress.
A tip from someone who has walked this block more than once. Screenshot the style number from the Hermz site before you go, and call the store at the number on its site to ask which address has it on the floor. With two doors on the same block, that one call saves a lot of back and forth.
Hermz is one of many shops along the Fashion District's prom strip, the stretch that draws shoppers from across Southern California every February through May.
A Hermz designer question
What designers does Hermz carry for prom?
The store's site names Jasz in its brand menu and lists a deep run of Portia and Scarlett gowns, along with evening, pageant and couture styles. Phone the store about a specific style number to confirm size and color on the floor.