The bridal side of this Market Street store runs on booked 90-minute appointments with a stylist. The prom floor does not. Prom shoppers are taken in order of arrival, no appointment, and the store warns that lines form on weekends during the busy part of the season. So the practical advice is simple: come early on a Saturday, or come on a weekday afternoon when the line is not the deciding factor in how many dresses you get to try.
Once you’re in, you start with up to five gowns and can try more as time allows. During peak weekends there may be a short wait, or you may be asked to rejoin the line. The store suggests bringing one or two people whose opinion you actually want; boyfriends and other male guests stay at the front rather than in the fitting-room area. No food or drink on the floor.
Every gown gets registered to a school
After a prom dress is purchased, Camille’s logs it against the buyer’s high school, so the store won’t sell that same dress to another student from the same school. That is the reason to shop early rather than in the last two weeks of April. In a market this size it matters — New Hanover County’s public high schools are Hoggard, Laney, New Hanover, Ashley, Isaac Bear Early College and Wilmington Early College, and just up US 17 in Pender County, Topsail High in Hampstead enrolls roughly 1,900 students on its own.
What’s on the racks and what it costs
Prom gowns run sizes 00 to 24, and most fall between $200 and $700 depending on designer and style. The store is an authorized retailer for Jovani, La Femme, Ava Presley, Johnathan Kayne and Jasz, and it also lists Colors Dress, Tiffany Designs and Kate Parker among its prom labels. Which lines are actually on the floor shifts through the season.
- No holds. A dress is not yours until it’s paid for.
- Layaway is available for prom with a 50% non-refundable deposit.
- Special orders take about two weeks to a month when a size or color isn’t in stock, and depend on the designer.
- No in-house alterations on prom dresses. The store hands out a list of local seamstresses instead, so budget separate time and money for the fitting.
Tuxedos and suits are sold and rented in the same store, which is worth knowing if a date wants to handle both errands in one stop. The same eveningwear floor also serves military ball and gala shoppers, a steady piece of the calendar on this stretch of coast.
Ogden Town Center, on the east side of Market
The address is 7134 Market Street, Suite 6, in Ogden Town Center. Ogden is a census-designated place of about 8,200 people in New Hanover County, sitting between Market Street and the Intracoastal Waterway on the north side of Wilmington. Market Street here is the old US 17 route, which means shoppers coming south from Hampstead and the Topsail area drive straight past it — and know how slow that corridor gets. The Military Cutoff Road extension opened in 2023 as the first piece of the Hampstead Bypass; the rest is still under construction, so allow for traffic on a spring Saturday.
Hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday, with Sunday hours added January through April for prom season. The business has been on the southeastern North Carolina coast since 2011, and opened under the name Camille’s Closet before it became Camille’s of Wilmington. Phone: (910) 471-4212.