4699 N High St is a storefront on the Beechwold end of Clintonville, on the north side of Columbus, Ohio — the stretch of High between Henderson Road and the point where Morse Road runs into it at the Graceland shopping center. There is a bus stop on the sidewalk out front. When the Clintonville Spotlight interviewed owner Kathy Chismar in 2022, she mentioned changing the window mannequins for the kids who catch that bus.
Chismar and a college friend, who stayed on as a silent partner, opened Gowntastic on Valentine’s Day 2014. They spent roughly six months hunting for retail space, looked at Upper Arlington and Grandview, and landed on High Street. The pull turned out to be much wider than the neighborhood. By 2022 Chismar was describing gown customers driving in from West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky, along with the southern half of Ohio.
Book ahead, then count backward from prom night
This is an appointment shop before it is a walk-in shop. Its booking system splits the hour-long consultations by occasion: prom, bridesmaid parties, mother-of-the-bride and other special-occasion gowns, and a short slot for coming in to try on and pay for a dress that has arrived. The store says appointments are not hurried and that it will schedule after hours. Walk-in hours exist and are posted, but they are limited and move with the season, so check them before you drive.
The number that matters most for a junior or senior: a custom-ordered gown takes 14 weeks to come in, and the store asks for 16 weeks between the order and the event. Central Ohio proms cluster in late April and early May. Sixteen weeks ahead of the first weekend in May puts you in mid-January — which is why Chismar describes January through May as the store’s longest season, not a spring rush.
How the year runs here
- January to May — prom, the long season.
- Late July into September — homecoming stock arrives and sells through October.
- November and December — what Chismar calls the shoulder season: military balls, black-tie events, holiday parties.
The racks
Five labels list Gowntastic on their own retailer locators: Alyce Paris, Ashley Lauren, Faviana, Jovani and Tiffany Designs. Everything is new stock — Chismar has been explicit that this is not a consignment or resale floor. On price, the clearest thing on the record is her 2022 description of the shop’s niche: quality new gowns under $600. That figure is a few years old now, so treat it as the shape of the inventory rather than a current ceiling.
Parking, and who else is close
Parking is in front of the store or on the adjacent side street, which on North High Street is not a minor detail. Two high schools sit inside the store’s own 43214 ZIP: Whetstone, on Scenic Drive, and Bishop Watterson, on East Cooke Road. Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne are just north across the city line, and Upper Arlington is a straight run west.
The other end of the local market is six or seven minutes up the road at Polaris, where Henri’s Cloud Nine runs a much larger prom operation on Sancus Boulevard. The trade-off is straightforward: more racks up there, an hour of undivided attention in a small room down here. If you want to see a thousand dresses in an afternoon, go north. If you want someone to pull sizes for you and let you take your time, this is the shorter drive for anyone in Clintonville, Worthington or Upper Arlington.