Before anyone drives to 15244 S. Mullen Street in Olathe, it is worth knowing what is there: a subdivision in the south end of town, off 151st Street, where the addresses on either side of that number are ordinary single-family homes. There is no dress shop on that block. The storefront Tabu customers walk into is about eight miles north, inside Oak Park Mall on West 95th Street in Overland Park — the address that Jovani’s retailer locator, the mall’s own store directory and the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce all give for this business.
That mall location is the whole shape of the store. Tabu is two adjacent storefronts under one phone number. Tabu Knits Boutique, the original, has operated at Oak Park Mall since 2018 and sells women’s clothing alongside the hand-knit pieces the business started with. Tabu Formal & Bridal is the newer shop next door. When a Kansas City business-news reporter visited in February 2025, it was still new: a bride at a three-sided mirror in a satin off-the-shoulder mermaid gown, other customers looking at party dresses, and racks of metallics, sequins and beadwork on silk, satin and organza.
Who runs it
Maryann Nzioki-Hult owns all of it. She learned to knit as a child, sold custom chunky-knit blankets and scarves, and turned that into a mall boutique. The expansion has not been a straight line. A second Tabu Knits opened at Town Center Plaza in Leawood in mid-2023 and closed in late 2024, which is worth saying plainly: this is a small independent business run by one owner, not a chain with a formalwear division.
Brands, and what they cost
Two labels are confirmed through the designers’ own retailer lists: Jovani and Terani. Jovani prom gowns on the shop’s site have been listed between $750 and $925 — beaded cutout gowns, satin V-necks with oversized back bows, draped metallic mermaids. The homecoming side runs cheaper: short dresses on the Tabu Knits site sit between roughly $270 and $540, mostly in sizes 2 through 8 online. Sizing on the racks is a question to ask on the phone before making the drive, because the online stock skews small.
For a Jovani gown anywhere in Kansas, the choices are narrow. The brand’s own state page lists three authorized retailers on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro: Tabu, Mimi’s Prom in Overland Park, and Natalie M in Leawood. Wichita has none. The eastern edge of Johnson County holds all of the state’s metro-side Jovani inventory, and Olathe sits roughly fifteen minutes from it.
Practical notes for Olathe families
- All five Olathe district high schools — East, North, Northwest, South and West — draw from this same stretch of the metro. Olathe South is on East 151st Street, the same corner of town as the address on this listing.
- Being in a mall means mall hours. The Tabu Knits listing shows 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, later than most standalone bridal salons in the county keep.
- Prom fittings and bridal visits are booked as appointments through the shop’s websites rather than by phone.
- Duplicate-dress risk is the real trade-off. A shop at 95th Street pulls from Olathe, Overland Park, Lenexa and Shawnee at once, so ask what has already sold into your school.
Tabu showed its formal and bridal collection, including 2026 prom looks, at Kansas City Fashion Week in the fall of 2025. That is the register of this store: a small boutique treating prom and bridal as a fashion business, sitting inside the largest mall in the metro rather than on a highway frontage road.