Madeleine’s Daughter has been selling gowns in Portsmouth since 1975. Janice Wood founded it. Elizabeth Dirom started there as a bridal stylist in 1996, returned in 2005, and bought the shop from Wood in August 2006. Boston Magazine marked the store’s fiftieth anniversary in January 2026. It has changed addresses and expanded more than once over those decades and now occupies Suite 3 at 775 Lafayette Rd.
For prom in particular, the picture is unsettled, and a family coming in from Hampton, Durham or Kittery should understand why before they get in the car.
What happened to the prom side
Prom here used to have its own name and its own storefront. Soiree Prom & Tux opened in 2011 at 599 Lafayette Rd., a short distance up the same road, marketed as the sister store to Madeleine’s Daughter and stocked with prom and pageant gowns plus tuxedo and suit rentals. Yelp now lists Soiree as closed. Madeleine’s Daughter’s own FAQ states that everything happens under one roof at 775 Lafayette Rd. and that there are no sister stores or affiliated locations. The Better Business Bureau file for the business still carries “Soiree Prom & Tux” as an alternate name of the same corporation, Deux Filles, Inc.
The current website has no prom department. Its navigation runs wedding dresses, little white dresses, mothers of the bride and groom, and suits and tuxedos. The appointment menu offers bridal, mothers, suit and tux styling, measurements and pickups — there is no prom appointment to request. Alyce Paris and Jovani, meanwhile, both still list 775 Lafayette Rd. on their official retailer locators.
So: two prom labels point here, and the shop’s own site points at weddings. One call to (603) 431-5454 settles it, and it is worth making first. The menswear side is not in question — they both sell and rent suits and tuxedos, and they will measure an entire party, which matters if a date needs a jacket for the same night.
The plaza, the roads, the hours
Lafayette Plaza is one of the older shopping centers on the Seacoast of New Hampshire. Margaritas, Planet Fitness, FedEx Office, West Marine, Harbor Freight and Ethan Allen share the property. It sits near the Portsmouth traffic circle with access to I-95 and the Spaulding Turnpike, roughly a mile from downtown — which means a surface lot instead of hunting a space on Market Street.
Everything is by appointment, including collecting an order you have already paid for. The week is shorter than most people expect: Monday 11 to 7, Tuesday and Wednesday closed, Thursday 11 to 7, Friday and Saturday 10 to 6, with Sunday hours only seasonal. Two of the days a working parent would pick are the two days the doors do not open.
One more practical note: some directory listings give this address as Suite 2. The store’s own site, its BBB file and Yelp all say Suite 3.
Who is close enough for this to matter
Portsmouth High School is a short drive up the same road. Winnacunnet in Hampton, Exeter High, Oyster River in Durham and Dover High are all inside a half-hour. Across the Piscataqua, Traip Academy in Kittery, Marshwood in South Berwick and York High School are close enough that the bridge is the only real obstacle, and New Hampshire has no sales tax, which is why Maine and Massachusetts families cross for formalwear in the first place.
If the answer on the phone is no prom, the next authorized Jovani stores in the state are inland: A Day to Remember in Concord, Brittany’s Boutique in Merrimack, and 125 Bridal in Plaistow. Each is a real drive from the coast, and Boston is roughly an hour south.
On price, the only figure the shop publishes is bridal: gowns start at $1,800, and upgraded appointments carry fees of $125 to $275. That is the tier this store operates in, and it is worth knowing before you set a prom budget against it.