Buy a full-priced dress at Paparazzi and a pair of shoes and a piece of jewelry come with it. The offer is printed across the top of the shop's homepage and repeated in its posts. For a family pricing out prom, it moves the budget line for heels and earrings to zero before anyone has tried anything on.
The store, which also goes by Paparazzi Glamour and Gowns, calls its floor "Prom Dress Heaven" and backs the name with a count. It also claims the best selection of formal dresses in the Tri-State, and it has been a fixture in Evansville formal wear for more than 14 years, which puts its start at 2012 or earlier.
1,000+
Prom, homecoming, pageant and dance dresses in stock
000 to 30
Size range, with some posts quoting up to 32
$99
Where prom dresses start in the shop's 2024 posts
Labels named on its site include Alyce Paris, Clarisse and Amarra.
Short dresses all year, long ones every spring
Short dresses stay on the racks twelve months a year, so the shop serves homecoming in the fall, holiday dances in winter and eighth-grade graduation along with prom. Pageant gowns are part of the regular inventory, and the store carries menswear for the dates who need to match.
The buying leans toward the unusual on purpose.
We stock unique styles that you won’t see on the cover of every teen magazine.
That promise comes from the prom section of the homepage, which adds that the shop works to stock designers you won't see in every prom boutique. The women on staff, who style shoppers under the nickname the Paparazzi Posse, will pull shoes and earrings to go with whatever goes into the dressing room. Customer reviews published on the site mention snacks and drinks during the appointment and a manager zipping dresses and bringing more sizes.
Late shoppers get a break, too. With a thousand-plus dresses on hand rather than a showroom of samples to order from, a junior who still has nothing two weeks before the dance has a real shot at leaving with a gown the same day. One of the shop's posts tells last-minute buyers that it is "NO BIG DEAL," and the stock count is what makes that line believable. Size-inclusive buying helps here as well, because the plus sizes are hanging on the floor alongside the 000s instead of living in a catalog.
A Lincoln Avenue shop that draws the whole Tri-State
Paparazzi is a street-front store on Lincoln Avenue on Evansville's east side, the same avenue that runs past the University of Evansville campus farther west. The shop is woman-owned, and its tags read like a roll call of local schools. Castle in Newburgh, Reitz, Memorial, Mater Dei, Bosse, Harrison, Central and North all show up, as do Boonville, Fort Branch and Jasper on the southwestern Indiana side and Henderson, Owensboro and Union County across the Ohio in Kentucky. Seasonal lookbooks have been shot at the Newburgh Family Entertainment Center and at Showplace Cinemas, with local photographers, hair and makeup artists credited by name.
Hours change with the season, and the store posts a separate summer schedule, so check the site or call before a long drive in from Posey or Warrick County.
Asked often about Paparazzi in Evansville
What comes free with a dress at Paparazzi?
Every full-priced dress includes complimentary shoes and a piece of jewelry.
Does Paparazzi carry plus sizes?
Yes. The store advertises sizes from 000 to 30, and its posts call the shop size-inclusive, with a prom dress for every person.