In August 2023, weeks after the Lahaina fire, Terri Ewbank posted a video asking for donated prom dresses. Maui answered, and she and a crew of volunteers turned the donations into a pop-up store for Lahainaluna High students. Maui Now reported that the first year served more than 250 students, and that Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center hosted appointments for Lahainaluna juniors in January 2024 after nearly 200 donated outfits arrived from Washington, New York, New Mexico and elsewhere. Ewbank owns Elly’s Formal Wear & Bridals at 145 N Kihei Rd, and the nonprofit she formed out of that effort, Angel Hands Maui, still operates in partnership with the store.
The program grew from there. A Prom Pop-Up Store ran at the Royal Lahaina Resort over two December weekends in 2024, with Rotary District 5000 Foundation fire relief money paying for new dresses and tuxedo rentals. In January 2026, Azeka Shopping Center in Kīhei named Angel Hands a nonprofit partner and gave it donated space for fittings and a glamour wall. Announced plans included Moloka‘i prom, fittings with Imua Family Services, and a Dream Prom for students with disabilities. Students get a complete outfit — dress or suit, shoes, shirt, tie, jewelry — at no cost. Anyone who cannot pay retail should know that this exists and that it runs out of this business.
The store itself
Elly’s was established in 1994. Per the shop’s own account, Elly Ewbank was sewing custom wedding and prom dresses at home in Kīhei before she outgrew the sewing room and opened a small storefront in town. Elly retired in 2019 and handed the business to her daughter Terri. The bulk of the work is bridal and tuxedo rental; prom is one part of a full formalwear shop, which means alterations and pressing happen on site rather than getting farmed out. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sunday, with after-hours private appointments offered. Appointments can be booked ahead. The phone is (808) 879-7010.
Getting there, and who shops there
The address is at Sugar Beach Resort, on North Kihei Road — Route 310, the oceanfront stretch at the top of town, not the South Kihei Road strip. Coming from Kahului or Wailuku on Mokulele Highway, this is the first part of Kīhei you reach: roughly ten miles from the airport, twenty to thirty minutes. From Upcountry or Lahaina it is a longer haul, but it is one stop on one island.
Kūlanihāko‘i High, South Maui’s first district high school, opened its Kīhei campus in August 2023 and graduated its first senior class on May 23, 2026, so its formal-season habits are still being written. Kihei Charter is the other school in town. Beyond that: Maui High in Kahului, Baldwin in Wailuku, King Kekaulike in Pukalani, Lahainaluna and Seabury Hall.
Three verified prom labels, and no mainland fallback
Elly’s carries Jovani, Alyce Paris and Dave & Johnny. Jovani’s own retailer information lists only two authorized stores in the state — this one and a shop near Hilo — and none on O‘ahu. That is the part worth understanding before ordering online instead: the nearest alternative rack is a plane ticket away, and a gown ordered from a mainland designer has to cross an ocean before anyone can hem it.
Maui proms also run earlier than mainland readers expect, and they run in resort ballrooms. Maui High’s student activities calendar put junior prom on Saturday, March 28, 2026, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Maui in Lahaina. Working backward from a late-March date, with shipping and alterations in between, a January or February appointment is not early.