Wayne County has six traditional public high schools. That is a small enough number that two girls who buy the same gown have a real chance of standing ten feet apart at the same prom. When Denise Bass brought Carley’s Formals to Goldsboro in December 2017, she told the Goldsboro News-Argus that the shop registers its dresses — a sold gown is logged against the event it was bought for, so the next customer knows that style is already taken. For a store serving a county this size, that record-keeping is the product as much as the racks are.
The Goldsboro store is now at 101 Millbrook Village Drive, Suite B, a small commercial strip off West Grantham Street on the way out toward Rosewood, across from the NCDOT office. This is the west side of town, not the Berkeley Boulevard retail corridor east of downtown. The suite was on the commercial market as a roughly 1,200-square-foot former salon space, so expect a compact shop rather than a warehouse floor. Its first Goldsboro address was in Cobblestone Place.
The business itself dates to 2013 and started in Smithfield, where Bass opened Carley’s So Sweet Pageant Boutique before the formalwear stores; both are named for her daughter Carley. She was direct about why she added Goldsboro: she already had customers coming from Greenville, Jacksonville and Duplin County, and a second store cut the drive. The Smithfield store is still open on U.S. 70 East, roughly 35 miles up the same highway, which matters if a style you want is at the other location.
Verified on those brands’ own retailer locators, Carley’s carries:
- Jovani — the shop’s prom collection online is built around it
- Ava Presley — prom and homecoming; current site listings for these run from the high $300s to around $600
- Ashley Lauren — pageant
Beyond gowns, the store lists itself with the Wayne County Chamber under prom, homecoming, pageant, military ball, tuxedos and accessories. The military ball category is not filler in this town: Seymour Johnson Air Force Base sits on the southeast edge of Goldsboro, and its formal season runs on its own calendar rather than the school one. On the menswear side, the company currently advertises a free tuxedo rental for the groom on a party of five groomsmen. Dresses are sold, not rented.
Students within an easy drive include Rosewood High on Rosewood Road, Goldsboro High, Eastern Wayne, Spring Creek, Southern Wayne in Dudley and Charles B. Aycock up U.S. 117 in Pikeville — plus the Duplin and Lenoir county schools that already sent business this direction before the store existed.
One practical warning. As of this writing the company’s website posts hours for Smithfield only (Monday through Friday 10 to 6, Saturday 10 to 4, closed Sunday) and says Goldsboro hours will be announced. Call (919) 288-1991 before you drive over, especially on a Saturday in eastern North Carolina’s February and March rush. The company’s listings say no appointment is required and photographs are allowed in the store.