Dody's Dresses

Every prom has the moment. You walk in, you scan the room, and there it is: your dress, on someone else. Dody's Dresses exists because its founder got tired of that moment.

The store's About page tells the story with real energy. Duha Khaddash, who describes herself as a world traveler, artist and mother, spent years being dragged from shop to shop by her daughters, Dana and Shahed, in search of one-of-a-kind gowns. The complaints were always the same. The quality was bad. Everyone had the same dress. The colors were boring. Eventually Duha found herself on Fashion Avenue in Manhattan, walking into the showrooms of high-end designers and seeing gowns she had never found in department stores. She built personal connections with those designers and launched Dody's Dresses as an international online shop, so women like her and her daughters could get at that inventory without the trek.

That online shop now has a home base on South Fullerton Avenue, just off Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair Center, and the gowns live there too.

What's on the prom racks

The designer menu on the site runs to more than twenty names, and Dody's is an authorized retailer of all of them, per the site. On the prom side, Jessica Angel accounts for the biggest share of the prom-tagged styles on the site, Portia & Scarlett brings sequins, sparkle and statement backs, and Chic and Holland covers something a little more fashion-forward. Tarik Ediz is a house favorite that turns up again and again in the shop's customer features. Then there's the couture side of the catalog, evening designers you won't often see on a suburban rack, which is what makes this room different from a typical prom shop.

A good chunk of the catalog is tagged as a modest collection, with long sleeves and covered silhouettes, which is a real help to a prom shopper who wants coverage without giving up drama.

Prices follow that mix. Many prom styles land in the mid-hundreds, while the couture evening pieces run well into the thousands. The site splits everything into ready-to-ship and pre-order, and nearly all of it is marked ready to ship. There's also a sale section and a clearance rack, which is where a budget-minded junior should start.

Booking a visit

Every visit to Dody's is booked in advance, and the scheduling page explains why.

At Dody's we provide appointment-only viewings to ensure you receive an unparalleled shopping experience.

Appointments are made through a calendar on the site, and any change needs 24 hours' notice. Because every visit is booked ahead, a prom appointment at Dody's is quiet and focused. You can bring your mom, your sister, or the friend whose taste you trust, and nobody is fighting you for the mirror.

The location helps. Montclair Center is the part of town where people already go for dinner and a walk, so a fitting can fold into an afternoon. And the shop pulls from a wide circle of schools. Montclair High School is the closest big one. Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and Nutley high schools are in the neighboring towns, and Clifton High School, one of the largest in the state, is just up the road in Passaic County.

The shop features its customers on a blog called My Dody Moment, and the photos there are the best preview of how these gowns actually look at a party. Shoppers send in a picture with "My Dody Moment" in the subject line, and the store posts it. Scroll through before your appointment and you'll get a feel for the Tarik Ediz and Jovani pieces in real life rather than on a model.

Dody's also dresses mothers of the bride and guests for other family celebrations. But for a Montclair junior or senior, the draw is simpler. You get a dress that very few people at your prom will have seen, from a family that built the whole business around avoiding the same-dress moment.

Booking and shipping at Dody's

Does Dody's Dresses take walk-ins?

No. The store offers appointment-only viewings, booked through the scheduling calendar on its website.

Can I order a prom dress online and have it shipped?

Yes. The site says every gown is housed in New Jersey and can ship overnight within the United States, with shipping included on US orders. For more shops in Essex County and beyond, browse our New Jersey prom guide.