Tara Camardo Attanasio grew up in Altamont and graduated from Guilderland High School in 1992. Before she opened Azalea in September 2018, she worked as an account executive for a dress company in Manhattan’s garment district, managed the original Angela’s Bridal in Guilderland, did formal-wear alterations out of her house, and coached soccer at her old high school. A lot of families in this corner of New York’s Capital District knew her from one of those before they knew the store. She named it after the azalea because the plant is vibrant, long-lasting, and, as she put it, resilient.
The shop is about 1,750 square feet in Carman Plaza. When The Altamont Enterprise visited the week it opened, the interior was deliberately spare and she intended to keep it that way; the piece she was waiting on was a wooden case with full-length mirrors at either end, being built by her husband, to stand in the middle of the floor. That is the scale to expect. One room, not a mall anchor, and someone who will pull dresses for you rather than point at a rack.
The address says Schenectady. The store is in Guilderland.
Mail goes to 3770 Carman Rd, Suite 6C, Schenectady 12303, and Faviana’s own retailer page advertises the shop as prom dresses in Schenectady. The building is in the Town of Guilderland, Albany County, right at the Rotterdam town line. Carman Road is Route 146: it runs from the Curry Road circle off I-890 in Rotterdam down to Route 20, Western Avenue, in Guilderland, and the plaza sits on that stretch with its own parking lot.
That border position defines who shops here. Most of Guilderland is in the Guilderland Central district, but the town also has neighborhoods zoned to Mohonasen, Schalmont, Voorheesville, and South Colonie — and Mohonasen, whose high school is in Rotterdam, draws students from Guilderland and Colonie as well. Two juniors who live a few streets apart near this plaza can be going to different proms, at different schools, in different counties.
What it carries and how a visit works
Faviana, Jovani, and La Femme all list this address on their official retailer locators. Those are the prom lines. Beyond prom, the store’s own categories cover balls, sweet sixteens, quinceañeras, bat mitzvahs, graduation, black tie, mother-of-the-bride, guest-of-wedding, and track dresses — the last one being a real occasion in the Capital Region, where Saratoga’s summer meet is something people buy a dress for. Bridal is here too, and that is the side of the business the reviews are thickest on.
Appointments are required only for bridal. For prom you can walk in, and the store special-orders styles it does not have on the floor, which matters if you are shopping in February for a May date. Its Facebook page puts the price range at $$; that is the store’s own figure, not a verified price list.
Phone is (518) 952-6727. On a small floor, stock in a specific size is worth a call before you drive in from Niskayuna, Rotterdam, or Bethlehem — and a call is also how you find out whether someone from your school has already bought the dress you are looking at.