The biggest room of gowns in White Oaks Mall is not in a department store, because the mall no longer has one. Central Illinois shoppers who came to 2501 Wabash Ave. for junior dresses in past years now go up to the second level, where L A Formals runs a showroom the store describes as 16,000 square feet holding more than 800 designer wedding gowns, plus a VIP bridal suite. Prom, homecoming, pageant and quinceañera hang under the same roof.
Worth knowing before searching for it: the business answers to more than one name. The mall directory lists both L.A. Formals and LA Prom as separate entries, the store’s own site signs off as LA Formals & Bridal / LA Prom, and Jim’s Formal Wear — the tuxedo line it rents through — carries it on its locator as Angie’s Boutique LA Formals. Same phone number, same upper level, (217) 697-7065.
What the mall trip looks like now
White Oaks is a two-story indoor center at Veterans Parkway and Wabash Ave. on the west side of Springfield, a short run off I-72. Macy’s, the last traditional anchor, was named on the January 9, 2025 national closing list and shut in March of that year; Bergner’s and Sears had both gone in 2018. What anchors the building now is a different mix — Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels, Esporta Fitness and Malibu Jack’s indoor amusement park — and the old Sears wing was rebuilt as State of Illinois office space in a renovation the Springfield Business Journal put at four years and $80 million. Practically, that means the mall is quieter on a weekday afternoon than it used to be, with state workers in one wing and a kids’ entertainment anchor in the other.
Prom side, concretely
- Brands confirmed through the designers’ own authorized-retailer locators: Alyce Paris, Amarra, Dave & Johnny, Johnathan Kayne and Tiffany Designs. Johnathan Kayne shows up on the store’s site under pageant rather than prom, which fits a shop that sells into a pageant crowd as well as a school-dance one.
- Prom gowns listed on the store’s own 2026 prom collection page run from $298 to $698. That is the online range, not necessarily everything on the racks.
- Plus sizes are advertised across both bridal and prom, including the TEASE prom line from plus-size specialist Sydney’s Closet.
- Tuxedo rental is handled in-house through Jim’s Formal Wear, so a couple can do dress and tux in one stop.
Appointments are the store’s preferred way in, booked by phone or through its online scheduler. Walk-ins are taken, but the store’s own posted rule is that the last walk-in of the day comes in one hour before closing. Hours are the one thing not to trust secondhand: the store’s site, the mall directory and the third-party listings all show different closing times, and midweek in particular they disagree. Call first.
Who shops here
The mall sits in the 62704 ZIP, the same one as Springfield High School on South Lewis Street, whose roughly 1,438 students make it the largest of District 186’s three high schools. Lanphier, on North 11th Street, and Springfield Southeast, on East Ash Street, are the other two — Senators, Lions and Spartans, all three in the Central State Eight Conference, so their students are in each other’s gyms all winter and then shopping the same racks in March. For families in the smaller districts ringing the capital, White Oaks is the mall trip anyway, which is what makes a formalwear floor inside it work.
It is not the only option in town — Gowns Bridal and Formal Boutique also sells prom in Springfield and carries lines this store does not, Faviana among them — but L A Formals is the one covering bridal, prom, pageant, quinceañera and tuxedos from a single second-floor showroom.