The gas station problem
Brittany Low was sewing for friends and family out of her home in Northwood when she noticed how local girls were reselling their prom dresses. They posted them on social media and met strangers at gas stations to hand them off. She thought there ought to be a clean, safe place to do that, and in early 2017 she opened one. The Albert Lea Tribune covered the opening that March under the headline "ALHS grad opens a business in Northwood," since Low grew up across the state line in Albert Lea.
It did not stay small for long. With help from the North Iowa Area Small Business Development Center, Low added new bridal and bridesmaid gowns, and a year after opening she moved. "We just needed a much larger space," she told the Tribune.
2017
Opens selling consignment prom dresses, renting tuxedos and doing alterations
2018
On February 1, moves to a larger storefront on the same block of Central Avenue, with a bridal suite and bigger fitting rooms
2024
The Tribune checks back in March: every prom dress new and available to order, six on staff counting Low, and open seven days a week for prom season instead of closing Sundays
The consignment racks are gone now.
How the prom season runs in Northwood
Dress buying peaks from January into early March, Low said in that 2024 interview. Area proms fall between mid-April and early May, and by then most girls already have their gowns, so the store's attention turns to tuxedos and alterations. She put the timing more bluntly in a 2019 Tribune story about the start of prom season.
I would definitely say that you want to have your dress about a month before your prom.
That cushion is for fittings, which can take more than one round. The store's appointment page lays out what the process looks like and what it tends to cost.
Find the dress
Prom walk-ins are welcome, Low told the Tribune, though a fitting room is not guaranteed on a busy day. Bridal try-ons are the appointment-only part of the shop.
Book alterations
Only on gowns purchased in the store, and not included in the purchase price. The appointment page puts prom alterations at roughly $150 to $275 on average; each gown is different, so the final number can land higher or lower.
At the fitting
Come with the shoes and undergarments, including shapewear, you will wear on the night.
Gown pick-up
Book a pick-up appointment to collect the dress. With no alterations needed, that slot is the only appointment you need.
Tuxedos run alongside the dresses. Tux appointments take from half an hour to an hour and a half, a consultant walks the customer through the options, and group measuring appointments are available. The site has its own prom tux pick-up page for the week of the dance.
Who comes to downtown Northwood
Northwood is the Worth County seat, close to the Minnesota line, and Low's customers come from both sides of it. The 2024 article put most of them within a 60-mile radius, with some driving in from Rochester, Des Moines and the Twin Cities. Closer to home, that radius takes in Northwood-Kensett, Lake Mills and St. Ansgar, and it stretches to Mason City High to the south and Low's own Albert Lea High School to the north. Interstate 35 runs just west of town.
Low has said she wants to keep retail in a small town instead of losing it to the metro areas. She told the SBDC she would rather be the best than the biggest, and that bridal and formal shoppers still want the experience of shopping in person. Asked by the Tribune what she likes most about the job, she pointed to getting to know the kids who come through the door. For a shop in a north Iowa town this size, that is the business model.
Shopping Fringe and Lace for a Northwood-area prom
Does Fringe and Lace alter prom dresses bought somewhere else?
Not at the moment. The appointment page says the shop is only accepting alteration appointments for gowns purchased in the store.