The business at 30 N Broadway decided it was trying to be two stores at once, so it became two stores. Starting May 18, the everyday men’s and women’s clothing moved under the name District 1, and Formal Society kept the gowns. The two operate next door to each other at the same Broadway address. For a family coming in for a prom dress, the practical effect is that the formal racks are no longer sharing floor space with shirt dresses and camis.
What stayed on the formal side: prom, homecoming, mother-of-the-bride and mother-of-the-groom, cocktail and wedding-guest dresses, plus jewelry, handbags and shoes. Three prom labels are confirmed through the brands’ own retailer locators — Clarisse, Colette and Dave & Johnny. Of the first couple dozen short homecoming dresses the store had listed online, prices ran from $179 to $349, with most clustered in the $220s to $270s.
The shop puts its formalwear sizing at 00 to 30, against XS–XL on the casual side, and says gowns can be special-ordered in a color or size other than what is hanging in store. It also offers exclusivity on dresses, the arrangement that keeps two girls from the same prom in the same gown — which carries real weight in a county where several districts of 5,000-plus students shop the same season. Alterations are handled in-house for formal pieces bought there.
Menswear is part of the same visit. The store rents and sells suits and tuxedos, and its own FAQ prices a complete tuxedo — jacket, pants, vest, shirt and tie — at $119 to $189, with Michael Kors, Allure Men and Ike Behar among the labels. That matters mostly for logistics: a couple can finish both sides of prom night without a second trip.
Who this store is actually for
Lebanon is the Warren County seat, about 20,800 people at the 2020 census, sitting between Cincinnati and Dayton in southwest Ohio off I-71 exits 28 and 29. Lebanon High School on Drake Road runs around 1,600 students. Within a short drive are Kings in Kings Mills, Little Miami in Morrow — itself about 1,600 students — Springboro, Waynesville under Wayne Local, and Mason City Schools, which federal enrollment data puts past 10,000 students district-wide. The Warren County Career Center is in Lebanon as well. This is one of the faster-growing corners of the state, and a downtown boutique here is not serving a small captive audience.
The address itself is worth knowing before the drive. Broadway is the original 1802 center of town, laid out wide enough for a six-horse stagecoach to turn around, and the store sits about a block up from the Golden Lamb at 27 S Broadway — open since 1803 and Ohio’s oldest continuously operating business. Parking is on-street along Broadway, with the LM&M Railroad public lot nearby. The county visitors center is at 50 S Broadway, and Kings Island is under eight miles off.
Before you drive over
Fitting-room reservations are not normally required. The store adds them at the height of prom season and during mother-of-the-bride trunk shows, one free slot per shopper, with a booking calendar posted on its site when it applies. Duplicate bookings get deleted, so a group needs one reservation per person, not one for the group.
Hours need a phone call. The store’s FAQ page lists Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4; its own homepage adds Tuesday to that; its Yelp listing has Sunday running to 5. Everything agrees on Monday closed and on late-morning openings, but a Tuesday trip or a late Sunday arrival is worth confirming at (513) 228-0444 first.