Deidre and Joseph Torra opened their Pittsfield store on Valentine's Day 2001 with a plan to dress people for every occasion on the calendar, from First Communion and Bar Mitzvah to proms and weddings. Today the business runs as a set of departments under the Deidre's name in downtown Pittsfield, where South Street begins at Park Square. Prom Central is the one students care about. Three others share the Deidre's name.
Special Day
Bridal
Social Butterfly
Dresses for grown-up occasions
Deidre's Closet
Discontinued and one-of-a-kind gowns, sold online at reduced prices
Two sentences sum up the prom department on the site: the hottest styles, both classic and trending, for today's discerning students, with hundreds of styles and colors to choose from. The labels it names for prom are Lucci Lu and Poly USA alongside La Femme and Dave & Johnny, two lines that cover very different ground. La Femme leans toward long, fitted, embellished gowns. Dave & Johnny tends to run younger and more playful. Between them a shopper can move from a classic floor-length look to something shorter and trendier in the same afternoon, and Deidre's Closet adds marked-down prom pieces from past seasons for families watching the budget.
Readers have voted the store Best in the Berkshires in a poll for 18 consecutive years, a run its About page notes alongside credit for staff who have been there for years and know the work well. The same page makes a case for shopping in person: try the dress on, feel the material, check the color and the size before you buy.
The prom registry and the layaway rules
Deidre's also keeps a prom registry, and its cancellation policy spells out how it keeps two girls headed to the same dance out of the same gown.
During Prom Season, we register a girl’s dress once she orders or places a stock dress on layaway. We do not sell the same dress in the same color to any other girl attending her event.
That registry ties directly into the store's layaway program, which is open to prom shoppers, and the posted terms are specific.
Layaway deposit
50% down.
Prom layaway window
Paid for and picked up within 45 days.
Bridal and regular layaway
90 days for bridal, 30 days for regular.
Changing a prom layaway
Exchange for another item in the store, with a $75 restocking fee.
Special orders
50% deposit, final sale, pick up within 30 days of arrival.
Social occasion dresses, prom included, are final sale, layaways too. The reason the store gives for the restocking fee is tied to the registry: a dress held for one girl is a dress it could not sell to anyone else from her school, and the selling window for prom is short. Gowns left past their layaway period are treated as abandoned and the deposit is lost, so put the pickup date on the family calendar.
Fittings, tuxedos and the finishing work
Alterations are handled differently here than at some shops. The store does not employ its own seamstress. Independent seamstresses come in and pin as a service to customers, alterations cost extra and are paid to the seamstress in cash, and you are free to use your own tailor instead. Whoever does the work, the advice on the site is the same: wear the undergarments and the exact shoes you will wear at prom to the fitting, because the seamstress will not pin a hem over substitute shoes. Once the work is back, call with your pickup date and the gown will be pressed and ready.
Dates are handled in the same building.
Tuxedo rental
Sarno & Sons
Designs
Names like Michael Kors, Joseph Abboud, Ralph Lauren and Ike Behar
Measuring
Done by the store's associates
Alterations
Minor tux alterations on site
The shoe department carries dyeable styles from Benjamin Walk and Nina, and the store dyes shoes on the premises, at a small fee when the shoes come from Deidre's. Gowns and veils bought at the store are pressed free of charge.
Schools across the county
Pittsfield is the population center of Berkshire County, and Prom Central draws from all of it. Pittsfield High School and Taconic High School are the two city proms. Wahconah Regional in Dalton and Lenox Memorial are close by, and north county sends students from Hoosac Valley in Cheshire, Drury and McCann Technical in North Adams and Mount Greylock Regional in Williamstown. From the south, Lee, Monument Mountain Regional in Great Barrington and Mount Everett Regional in Sheffield all come up Route 7. For a family in the far corners of western Massachusetts, the trip to Park Square is the regional shopping run.
Private appointments are available outside public hours, and the store asks that you call at least a week ahead to schedule one.
Deidre's Prom Central, Pittsfield: what families ask
Will another girl from my school end up in my dress?
Not one bought at Deidre's. During prom season the store registers each gown once it is ordered or put on layaway and keeps that style and color off-limits to any other girl going to the same prom.
Is there a seamstress at the store?
Independent seamstresses come in to pin for customers, and their work is paid separately in cash. You can also take the dress to a tailor of your choice.
Who supplies the tuxedos at Deidre's?
Sarno & Sons. Rentals take a 50% deposit, and the staff measure in the store.