The Elegant Edge

Jodi Pinske knows what it feels like to walk out under the lights in a gown, which is a useful thing for the owner of a prom shop to know. She competed in pageants herself and is now vice president of the Miss Minnesota Educational Scholarship Organization. Her store, The Elegant Edge, sits inside the Hutchinson Mall on Highway 15 South and sells prom and pageant dresses for the stage and the dance floor.

When the Southwest Initiative Foundation profiled the shop at its opening, it laid out the rest of her background. Pinske was crowned Miss Minnesota Valley in 1985, served as judges' chair and then executive director of the Miss Central Minnesota pageant, and worked at Aubony Bridal, whose owner trained her on site and helped with inventory. She opened The Elegant Edge with help from the foundation's microenterprise loan program, kept her full-time job as a licensed clinical social worker, and brought in her daughter Montana, then studying fashion merchandising, to help manage it. Her goal, as she told the foundation, was to give young women shopping for a prom or pageant dress individual personal support and a special experience.

Six sections of gowns

The shop's online inventory is split into six categories, and together they give a good picture of what a prom visit covers.

Prom

Long gowns from Jovani, Faviana, Amarra, Kate Parker, Andrea & Leo and others

Pageant

Stage gowns for competition

Short Dresses

Shorter styles, including two-pieces

White / Aquatennial / Winter Carnival

White gowns for festival royalty

Social Occasion

Dresses for other formal events

Sale

Marked-down gowns from past seasons

The labels named across those listings, beyond the prom section's mainstays, make a long roll call for a single storefront.

• Abby Paris
• Alyce Paris
• Amarra
• Ava Presley
• Cecilia
• Chandelier
• Clarisse
• Dave & Johnny
• Faviana
• Johnathan Kayne
• Jovani
• Lucci Lu
• Mac Duggal
• Portia & Scarlett
• Rachel Allan
• Sherri Hill

Sizes in the posted stock run from 00 up to 24, and several Rachel Allan and Faviana gowns are cut in W sizing, such as 18W and 20W. Each listing names a single size and color, so treat the site as a snapshot of the stock rather than an order catalog.

Built for the stage as much as the dance

The white gown section is the detail locals will recognize. Its name points straight at festival royalty, the town queens and princesses whose appearances at events like the Minneapolis Aquatennial and the St. Paul Winter Carnival call for white. A shop owned by a pageant veteran keeps a whole section for them.

That stage sense carries over to prom. Proms in this part of the state open with a grand march, where each gown is seen head-on from an auditorium full of parents before anyone reaches the dance. Hutchinson High School students are the closest shoppers, and Glencoe-Silver Lake, Litchfield, Dassel-Cokato and Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart students all live within the shop's natural reach in central Minnesota. For many of those families, the mall on the south side of town is closer than any metro option.

At opening, the shop kept Friday through Sunday hours from January through April and booked appointments from May through December, a calendar shaped around prom and pageant season. Check the current schedule before you head over in the off months.

The About page sums up the house approach in two lines.

We believe in taking every BODY to the edge of elegance, by manifesting your inner beauty and crafting confidence. Providing personalized service and watching you shine as you find the right dress.

The Elegant Edge About page

What Hutchinson shoppers ask The Elegant Edge

Does The Elegant Edge carry plus sizes for prom?

Yes. Posted stock reaches size 24, with W-sized Rachel Allan and Faviana gowns in 18W and 20W.