Jovani lists thirteen authorized stores in Connecticut, and exactly one of them is in Middlesex County: Lastrina Girls, at 179 Main Street in downtown Middletown. The next closest doors are Mariella Creations on the Silas Deane Highway in Rocky Hill and two shops in Wallingford.
That statistic comes with a caveat worth knowing before anyone drives in. Lastrina Girls is a bridal salon, and its own catalog is built entirely around weddings: gowns, bridesmaids, mothers, flower girls, veils and accessories, plus an off-the-rack rack. There is no prom category on it. The Jovani styles the shop lists sit under mother of the bride, alongside Cameron Blake, Montage, Ivonne D, Christina Wu Elegance, Gia Franco and Feriani Couture, and the Alyce Paris pieces it shows are from that label’s Jean de Lys evening line. Both brands make prom gowns and both authorize this store, but the floor here is set for brides and their mothers. One phone call settles what is actually hanging in the showroom in a given week — the store also notes that not every dress shown online is available to try on in person.
What a visit involves
The salon is appointment only. Hours are 10am to 5pm Monday and Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday; closed Wednesday and Sunday. Bridal appointments run about an hour, begin with a consultation, and carry a $25 booking fee that is credited toward a purchase. Krista, the owner, came into the business in 2009 from a career in landscape architecture.
- Parking: a free lot behind the building, reached from College Street and signed Plaza Middlesex. It has accessible spaces and a back entrance with no stairs.
- On-street: Main Street meters run 10am to 6pm Monday through Saturday and take coins or cards.
- Driving in: Route 9 still runs two traffic signals through downtown Middletown, the pair CTDOT has spent years designing out. Coming from Portland, it’s the Arrigoni Bridge and Exit 24 at Hartford Avenue.
The schools within a few miles
Middletown carries an unusual concentration of high schools for a city its size. Mercy, all girls, and Xavier, all boys, sit on the same road — 1740 and 181 Randolph Road, both founded in 1963 — so two separate proms generate dress shopping inside the same few square miles. Middletown High School serves the public district. Vinal Technical High School on Daniels Street pulls from a long list of towns across the region, Cromwell, Durham, Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Deep River, Clinton and more, which makes downtown Middletown a natural stop for families who are already driving in. Coginchaug Regional on Pickett Lane in Durham, with fewer than four hundred students, is about fifteen minutes south. Wesleyan sits up the hill from Main Street and adds its own formal-wear season.
Timing
Connecticut proms run April through June, later than the Southern calendar, and Jovani’s own guidance is to shop January through March. Special orders are the constraint: the store asks six to nine months for mothers and bridesmaids and describes alterations as roughly a six-to-eight-week process across two or three fittings, done in house if you want. Anything bought off the rack goes home the same day but still needs the alterations window.
The rest of the block is the reason a trip here is more than an errand. Main Street in Middletown is a working downtown of independent restaurants and storefronts, and the salon is one of them rather than a suburban plaza tenant.