The store opened in April 2021 with 110 dresses on the racks. By its own count it now carries more than 3,000. That happened inside a storefront at 116 North Main Street in Amory, a Monroe County town in northeast Mississippi, and it is run by a mother and daughter, Libby Herring and Lexie Coker.
Geography explains a lot about who walks in. The Amory School District central office sits at 124 North Main, essentially the same block; the district enrolls about 1,500 students and its high school teams are the Panthers. The Monroe County School District fills in the rest of the trade area from three directions — Hatley High, which carries an Amory address out on Hatley Road, plus Hamilton and Smithville. Tupelo is roughly 30 miles and a 35-minute drive northwest on US-278, so a family in Amory or Hatley can either shop four minutes from the school office or make an afternoon of it up the highway.
The brand list is deeper than the size of the building suggests. Amarra, Ashley Lauren, Ava Presley, Dave & Johnny, Jessica Angel, Johnathan Kayne and Tiffany Designs all list Pistol Blondies as a stocking retailer. The shop’s own site adds Alyce Paris, Colette, Ellie Wilde, Portia and Scarlett, Rachel Allan, Sugar Kayne, Tiffany Princess and the Sydney’s Closet labels. Johnathan Kayne styles listed on the site run from about $400 to $1,290, which is a useful anchor before you drive over.
Two things are worth knowing if they apply to you. First, plus sizes are not an afterthought here: the online size filter runs from 000 through 32 and 14W through 32W, and the store carries Sydney’s Closet and Johnathan Kayne for Sydney’s Closet, both built specifically for that range, with separate plus-size prom and plus-size short categories. Second, short dresses are the house specialty by their own claim — the owners describe themselves as the leading seller of short homecoming gowns in Mississippi. Treat that as their statement, not a measured fact, but it tells you where the buying attention goes. Pageant is part of the business too; the shop lists itself as pageant, prom and tuxedo, and its search filters include girls’ pageant, quinceañera, Sweet 16, communion and modest cuts.
One scheduling note specific to this address. Amory’s Railroad Festival has run every April since 1979, and craft booths, a car show and carnival rides take over Main Street and Frisco Park from Thursday through Sunday. That is the same street and the same season as prom shopping. Plan around it, or plan into it — Bill’s Hamburgers has been serving downtown since 1929, and Gemstone occupies one of the oldest buildings in town, a former jewelry store. Downtown Amory took a direct hit from an EF-3 tornado in March 2023 and has been rebuilt since, murals and all.
Posted hours are narrow, which matters most if you are driving in from Hamilton, Smithville or Aberdeen:
- Monday through Friday, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Sunday, closed
That leaves the hour after school lets out on a weekday, or Saturday morning. The store takes calls and texts at (662) 825-3099, and the full inventory is searchable by size, color and price on its website before you make the trip.