The building around it has changed more than the store has. Hamilton Mall opened in 1987 at the corner of the Black Horse Pike and U.S. 40 in Mays Landing, with JCPenney, Macy’s and Sears holding the ends. Sears and JCPenney are both gone now, and local radio and news outlets have spent the last few years asking out loud how much longer Macy’s stays. Dress It Up has been in the building since 2004 and is still there, lower level, near the middle.
That is the practical fact for anyone in Atlantic County shopping for a gown: this is the designer prom rack you can reach without a highway trip. Jovani’s own retailer list treats Dress It Up as its Atlantic County store. The next Jovani retailers are Park Avenue South in Toms River, north up the Parkway, and the Cherry Hill cluster on Route 70, west on the Expressway.
What is actually on the racks
Four brands are confirmed through the designers’ own retailer locators: Jovani, Terani, Ashley Lauren and Jessica Angel. The mall’s store directory adds Portia & Scarlett and Scala. These are labels most families first see online, on a phone, in a size they cannot judge. The point of the trip is putting one on.
Prom is the busiest season but not the whole business. The store’s own listing covers homecoming, bridal, quinceañera, sweet sixteen, mother of the bride and evening gowns, and its social bio adds bridesmaids, flower girls, communion, shoes and accessories. Alterations are done through the store, which is the part worth knowing in April. The Instagram account leads with “no appointment required” — unusual in designer formalwear, and sensible for a shop that lives on mall traffic.
Who walks in
Oakcrest High School sits about two miles off, on Dennis Foreman Drive in Mays Landing, with roughly 940 students. The Atlantic County Institute of Technology, on Atlantic Avenue, draws about 1,800 more from across the county. Absegami in Galloway and Cedar Creek in Egg Harbor City are Oakcrest’s district siblings, both within a short drive. Atlantic Cape Community College is 2.2 miles west on the Pike. Egg Harbor Township, Hammonton, Pleasantville and Atlantic City all funnel toward the same intersection.
Getting there: Atlantic City Expressway Exit 12, then Route 322 east, or straight up Route 40. NJ Transit’s 502, 508 and 553 buses all serve the mall, which matters for a junior without a license or a parent free on a Tuesday.
The calendar this shop runs on
South Jersey proms land in May and many of them land in Atlantic City ballrooms. Atlantic City High School has held its junior-senior prom at Harrah’s; Hammonton has used the Sheraton in Atlantic City; Cape May Tech books the Wildwood Convention Center. Those dates cluster tightly, which means the alteration window in this region is short and shared. A dress bought in February with a fitting scheduled in March is a very different experience from one bought three weeks out, when every senior in Atlantic County wants a hem taken up at the same time.
Call (609) 645-9292 before driving in if you need a specific size or designer on the floor. The store record and its listings agree on the phone number and the address; hours were not something we could confirm from a source we trust, and mall hours and store hours are not always the same thing.