For most of the calendar, Style and Grace sells western and boho women’s clothing in sizes small through 3X — denim, prints, jewelry, a children’s rack. Then the formal season starts. The shop describes its prom and formal dress operation as running in store from January through May, with new dresses each year in sizes 0 through 22. If you walk in during June looking for a ball gown, you are looking at the wrong five months.
The pricing is stated plainly on the store’s own listing: dresses start at $120, and most are under $350. That is unusual to see in writing from a shop carrying designer prom labels, and it tells you what kind of floor this is — a working boutique with a formal season, not a gown showroom.
Style and Grace appears on the official retailer locators for five prom houses:
- Alyce Paris
- Dave & Johnny
- Jovani
- La Femme
- Tiffany Designs
Being on a brand’s own locator is the check worth making. La Femme, for one, publishes its authorized list specifically so shoppers can confirm a dress is not a knockoff and that the price is consistent with other authorized sellers.
Bedford, and who drives in for it
The address is 1420 H Street, in downtown Bedford — the Lawrence County seat, a city of roughly 14,000 that has called itself the Limestone Capital of the World since the quarries got going in the 1890s. The Lawrence County tourism office, which brands the area Limestone Country, lists the shop among the downtown boutiques.
The nearest large customer base is Bedford North Lawrence High School, out on Stars Boulevard east of town, with about 1,250 students in grades 9 through 12 and a Hoosier Hills Conference schedule. South of the White River, Mitchell Community Schools runs the much smaller Mitchell High School — roughly 210 students, the Bluejackets. Three private faith-based schools in Bedford add to the mix. In a county with one large public high school and one small one, a single formal season in one downtown storefront covers a lot of the demand.
From farther out, the roads all funnel through here. State Road 37 brings traffic down from Bloomington, 25 miles and about 35 minutes north, and from Indianapolis beyond that. US 50 comes in from Seymour and I-65 on the east side and from Vincennes on the west. State Road 60 at Mitchell picks up drivers from Salem and the Louisville direction, and State Road 450 winds in from Shoals. For families across this corner of southern Indiana — Orange, Martin, and southern Monroe counties, Bedford is the practical stop rather than a detour.
Before you drive
Call rather than email if you are working against a date. The shop asks for two business days to answer email, which is fine in October and not fine in April. The phone number is on the visit card, and so is the store’s own site if you want to see what the everyday boutique inventory looks like before you commit to the trip.