Most prom dress shopping in the country involves a car and a parking lot. In this part of Queens, New York, it involves a MetroCard. Chic’s Place sits at 96-41 Queens Blvd, a short walk from the 63rd Drive–Rego Park station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line, where the R runs at all times except late nights, the M on weekdays, and the E and F overnight. The Q38 and Q59 stop nearby, along with the Q60 and Q72 and the QM10, QM11, QM18 and QM40 express buses to Manhattan. A junior at Forest Hills High School can get here on her own after school, which is not something you can say about most Sherri Hill retailers.
The store says it has been in business since 1976. There is no website on file and none turned up in research; the store’s Instagram account, @shopchicsplace, with roughly 4,000 followers, is the closest thing to a lookbook, and the phone number is (718) 459-6880. Its own description of itself is short: a boutique carrying dresses from top brands, with dresses that can be custom made.
What the brand list tells you
Chic’s Place appears on the official retailer locators for five labels: Dave & Johnny, Jovani, Sherri Hill, Terani and MNM Couture. That combination is not purely a prom lineup. Sherri Hill and Jovani are the two names teenagers arrive already asking for, and Dave & Johnny sits at the more moderate end of most prom floors. Terani and MNM Couture are evening-wear houses whose gowns get worn by adults — mothers of the bride, wedding guests, women dressed for a black-tie affair. A shop stocking all five is working the whole formal calendar, not just May and June.
That fits where it is. Rego Park and neighboring Forest Hills are home to one of the largest Bukharian Jewish communities in the United States, tens of thousands of people, with 108th Street between 63rd and 65th Avenues serving as the commercial spine that locals call Bukharian Broadway, and Russian spoken across the counter in much of the area. Weddings, engagement parties and bar and bat mitzvahs drive formal buying here year-round, and a made-to-order option in a neighborhood like this one is a practical service rather than an upsell.
Who shops here
Forest Hills High School is the zoned public high school for Rego Park and also draws students from Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Flushing and Jackson Heights — a large, mixed student body within a couple of subway stops of this block. Queens Metropolitan High School is on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills. New York City proms run late by Southern standards; the Forest Hills calendar placed senior prom in the first week of June. The school has listed senior prom tickets at $150 plus a $6.35 processing fee, so families here are budgeting for a dress on top of about $156 a head before anything else.
Before you go
- Call first. Third-party listings disagree on hours — some show 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., others 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with shorter Sundays.
- The address appears as both 96-41 and 9639 Queens Blvd across directories. Same phone number, same block.
- Customer reviews are mixed. Several describe a densely packed selection that takes time to work through, and some concern returns and exchanges. Ask for the deposit, alteration and exchange terms in plain language before you pay, and keep the receipt.