The business now at 1010 S. Van Buren Street began in a home in Hugoton in 1965, run by Ila Bryan. Her daughter Janet took it over and has kept it going, and the store’s own description of itself — filed with the tuxedo company it works through — says the shop has been in business more than fifty years. That makes it older than most of the marriages it has dressed, in a county seat of 3,747 people in the far southwest corner of Kansas.
Hugoton is 2.08 square miles. Every street in town, including Hugoton High School at 215 W. 11th, is within a few minutes of the store. What is not close is everything else. Liberal is 33 miles southeast on K-51, about a 40-minute drive. Garden City, where the next comparable prom boutique sits, is roughly 70 miles north up K-25, an hour and fifteen minutes each way. Distance is normal here rather than remarkable: the Eagles’ fall schedule has them driving to Goodland and hosting Perryton, Texas. Still, for a Stevens County sophomore who needs a dress and a fitting, the difference between a shop on Van Buren and a shop in Garden City is a whole Saturday.
What the shop covers
Three prom and formal labels list Janet’s on their official retailer locators: Dave & Johnny, Tiffany Designs and House of Wu. The store also handles tuxedo and suit rental as a Jim’s Formal Wear affiliate, which means a date’s measurements can be taken in the same room where the gown was ordered. It is a Brighton retailer as well, so jewelry and accessories are on site instead of on a second trip. Beyond prom, the store describes carrying bridal, bridesmaid, flower girl and mother-of-the-bride dresses, plus boutique clothing.
That consolidation is the practical argument for the place. In a town this size, a store that only sold prom dresses would not survive a calendar year; a store that sells prom dresses, wedding gowns, tuxes, and Brighton bracelets does.
Quinceañera gowns: worth a phone call first
About 41 percent of Hugoton’s residents are Hispanic or Latino, a share typical of the meatpacking and gas-field towns across southwest Kansas. House of Wu, one of the confirmed labels here, is known nationally as much for its quinceañera collection as for its prom and bridesmaid lines. Which specific House of Wu books this store keeps on the floor is not something published anywhere, so it is a question for the phone rather than an assumption.
Hours and getting there
- 1010 S. Van Buren St., Hugoton, KS 67951
- (620) 544-8796
- Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday, per the Jim’s Formal Wear store listing. Brighton’s locator simply says to call for hours, so confirming before a long drive is sensible.
Hugoton calls itself the Natural Gas Capital, and the field named after it is the largest in North America, running across more than a dozen western Kansas counties and down into the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. The Stevens County Gas & Historical Museum on the edge of town is the other thing people drive here for. If the trip is coming from Rolla, Elkhart or Satanta anyway, the two errands fit in one morning.