A Greek family has run Irini's Originals in Wilmington since at least 1981, and the shop still works the way family businesses do: by appointment, with the same people handling the sale and the sewing. Customers on the store's testimonial page describe a mother-and-daughter team, Niki and Irini, and the site describes the business as family owned and operated. Bridal is the biggest department, but the menu gives prom its own section, with in-store gowns, a sale rack and a full catalog, plus a homecoming category for fall.
The most useful promise for a prom shopper sits on the About page with an exclamation point: the store registers every prom dress it sells. With so many high schools packed into this corner of New Castle County, a registry is the simplest protection against two classmates arriving in the same gown.
The prom and evening department
The Special Occasion side of the site splits into In Store Prom/Evening, Prom/Evening Sale and All Prom/Evening, so you can see what is physically hanging in the shop before you book. The designers named there are Jovani and Portia & Scarlett. In-store Jovani styles were listed in roughly the $480 to $935 range at last check, with markdowns on the sale page.
The site also explains how the store buys. Irini's is an authorized retailer for every designer listed on its website, by the store's account, and it can order any dress from those designers directly, without a middleman, at the lowest price it can offer. It backs that up with a price-match promise, posted on the About page in capital letters. Delaware's lack of a sales tax gets a mention, too; the contact page calls it tax-free shopping, which is a real factor for families coming down from Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
For a style that is not in stock, the store can borrow it from the designer.
Ask
Up to three loaner gowns per shopper, with a $50 fee that covers shipping
About three to five business days
The loaners arrive
If you buy
The $50 comes off the price
The other terms cover booking, questions and alterations.
- Appointments
- Required. Book through the website; there are no walk-ins or same-day appointments, and a standard appointment is booked for two hours.
- Questions
- Text the shop's text line rather than calling, since staff may not pick up the phone while they are with a customer.
- Alterations
- Done in house, on styles bought in the store.
Older than the shop: the sewing table
The alterations side is where the family history shows most. The family's altering and customizing work predates the boutique itself; by the site's count it goes back to at least 1976, and the About page lists alterations and customization as the store's two core services. For prom, that means a hem set to the heel you will actually wear, straps adjusted, and a bodice taken in by the same people who sold you the dress. Alterations are reserved for in-store styles, so a gown bought elsewhere goes to a different seamstress.
The two-hour appointment is generous for prom. It leaves room to try the registered in-store gowns, talk through a loaner or two, and settle on fit questions before you leave.
Who books on Philadelphia Pike
This stretch of Philadelphia Pike runs through Brandywine Hundred, the suburbs north of the Wilmington city line, and it is home ground for families from the Brandywine School District's three high schools, Brandywine, Concord and Mount Pleasant, as well as Archmere Academy farther up the Pike in Claymont. Wilmington's Catholic high schools, Salesianum, Ursuline Academy and Padua Academy, are in the city just to the south. Families from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, reach the Pike on Interstate 95, and for them the tax-free checkout in northern Delaware is part of the appeal.
We Register All of Our Prom Dresses!
That line from the About page is the promise to bring up at the appointment. Ask how the registry is kept for your school when you book.
Irini's Originals in Wilmington: questions
Does Irini's Originals keep a prom dress registry?
Yes. Every prom dress sold here goes on the registry, so mention your school when you buy.
Can I try a gown the shop does not have in stock?
In most cases, yes, because Irini's can borrow up to three styles from the designer for a $50 fee that is credited toward your purchase. Text the shop with the style numbers.