Forty minutes. That is how long a prom appointment lasts at Jan's Boutique, and anyone who has shopped here in February learns to walk in with a plan. The store on Marlton Pike East, the Route 70 stretch of Cherry Hill, holds more than 15,000 dresses in sizes 000 to 26. Prom and evening fill the entire first floor. Bridal lives upstairs. Prom gets the ground level, the racks you see first, and most of the energy in the building from January through May.
The customer base is wide. Students come from both Cherry Hill high schools, East and West, and from across the Lenape Regional district: Cherokee in Marlton, Lenape and Shawnee in Medford. Eastern Regional in Voorhees sends its share of juniors and seniors too. The store says its shoppers travel from Philadelphia, all over the state, Delaware and New York. If you grew up anywhere in South Jersey, New Jersey, odds are someone in your family already has a Jan's story.
How a prom visit actually works
Appointments are required for dress shopping. Jan's offers free appointments, which hold a slot with a credit card, and paid VIP appointments that run longer and allow more guests. Cherry Hill Township's occupancy limits drive the guest rules, and they change by occasion:
Prom and teen occasions
40 minutes with 1 guest, for prom, homecoming, pre-teen, Sweet 16 and quinceañera.
Evening and mother-of
45 minutes with up to 2 guests.
VIP appointments
55 or 75 minutes, with extra guests on select types.
Each shopper
Every person trying on needs her own appointment.
Arriving late
The clock doesn't stretch; you rebook.
Weekends book up about two weeks out, according to the store, so a mid-March weekend slot is, in practice, a February decision. None of this is meant to be stiff. It's how a store this busy keeps 50 dressing rooms moving on a spring Saturday.
One rule surprises first-timers. A teenager can shop at Jan's without an adult, as long as she books. The prom page goes further than the FAQ on that point.
We will never require a mother and daughter to shop together.
Eleven words on the prom page. For a kid whose mom works Saturdays, they carry a lot of weight.
Stock you can carry out the door
Nothing on the floor is a tired sample. Jan's sells every in-stock dress off the rack, so you can try on your size and leave with it the same day, and by the store's count it sells roughly 100 dresses a day between the showroom and its website. That pace explains the one request it makes of anyone chasing a specific gown: call with the designer, style number, size and color before heading to Route 70. In-stock styles carry a navy "IN STOCK!" tag online, a shop-by-size tool shows everything in your size, and the store can't hold a dress ahead of an appointment. There's a plus-size prom section online as well.
The prom racks pull from a long roster. The store's own collection pages name Jovani, Terani, Faviana, Portia & Scarlett, Alyce Paris, Ava Presley, Jasz Couture, Jessica Angel, Primavera, Rachel Allan, Tarik Ediz, Clarisse, Amarra, Ashley Lauren, Ellie Wilde, La Femme, Colette, Johnathan Kayne and Morilee, along with JVN, Nicole Bakti and Atria.
Prices are posted, which few shops bother to do. Prom, pageant, Sweet 16 and military ball gowns run $398 to $2,000. Short teen and pre-teen styles start at $298. If you're ordering instead of buying off the rack, give it room.
Ordered dresses, by where they are made
Some US-based designers
Under 4 wks
Made overseas
3 to 6 mo
The store's advice is blunt: start shopping early. Layaway is available for up to 60 days with 50 percent down and a monthly layaway fee, and Jan's notes there's no sales tax on its dresses. It takes credit cards and cash, not checks.
Fittings from the people who sold you the dress
Alterations happen on site, for dresses bought at Jan's only. The store describes a seamstress team with more than 100 years of combined experience that alters thousands of wedding, evening and prom dresses a year. Prom alterations start at $250, and the seamstresses want about eight weeks of lead time.
Dress arrives
The store texts you to come in for a quick try-on
About two months before your wear date
First fitting
Following fittings
Most gowns need two or three
Before pickup
Every bead, crystal and sequin gets inspected, and loose embellishments are secured at no extra charge
Bring your shoes to the fittings, or a pair with the same heel height, because Jan's doesn't sell shoes.
Accessories are a different story. The racks of earrings, necklaces, hair combs and handbags are deep, and the store says South Jersey Magazine voted it Best Accessories. Sales staff don't work on commission, which Jan's points to as the reason nobody pushes you toward a dress.
The building grew in stages. Jan's opened its Route 70 store in November 2006 with more than 6,000 square feet and over 20 dressing rooms, then added a 7,000-square-foot wing to reach today's two-story, 13,000-square-foot layout. The lot holds around 50 cars. On busy weekends, shoppers park at the Saw Mill Village Shopping Center right next door, a five-second walk by the store's own count.
Before any of that, it was a front room in Burlington. Janice Davis started selling dresses, sportswear and accessories from the street level of her Burlington home in April 1974. The shop moved to a larger Burlington space, then to Rancocas Woods, then to Zagara's Towne Place in Marlton, before landing in Cherry Hill. It has been dressing the region since 1974. Along the way it picked up coverage in 6abc's wedding series and The Philadelphia Inquirer's Cherry Hill guide, and the store says magazine publications have named it NJ's #1 Rated Dress Store. It also lists decades of donations to charities across the Delaware Valley, a habit the store credits to Jan Davis herself.
Questions prom shoppers ask about Jan's
Do I need an appointment to shop for prom at Jan's?
Yes. Dress shopping is by appointment, and appointments get priority. Only the daywear, sportswear, cruisewear and accessory departments are open without one.
Will Jan's alter a prom dress I bought somewhere else?
No. The alterations team works only on dresses purchased at Jan's, and fittings are scheduled by a staff member rather than online.
Can I buy a prom dress and take it home the same day?
Yes. Every in-stock dress sells off the rack, so if your size is there, it can go home with you. Phone with the style number if you want a specific gown, since stock moves fast.