Tom and Patricia Kahn started Top Cat Formal Wear & Accessories at 808 Main Street in 2013. Their own telling of it is short: four daughters, a lot of trips to find the right dress, and the conclusion that northwest Oklahoma needed a formalwear store of its own.
The map explains the rest. Woodward had 12,133 people in the 2020 census and is the county seat, and the nearest town with a comparable prom selection is Enid — about 87 miles east, an hour and 45 minutes each way if nothing slows you down. Oklahoma City is closer to two hours and forty minutes. For a family in Woodward County, Top Cat is the difference between an afternoon downtown and a full day in the car.
That is also why the store’s reach runs past its own zip code. Woodward is where the wider region already comes for a dress: the annual Primp for Prom giveaway, run by Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s social work department in the Woodward High School practice gym, has drawn students from as many as 26 high schools across Oklahoma and Texas in a single year. Woodward High’s own prom lands in mid-April, followed by the all-night After Prom party the community has put on for nearly three decades.
What’s actually on the racks
Two prom labels are confirmed through the designers’ own retailer locators: Jovani and Dave & Johnny. Jovani sits at the higher end of the mainstream prom market; Dave & Johnny is the more moderately priced line, and the two together cover a fairly wide span of budgets. The store also says it buys prom one-off — no two prom dresses alike on the floor at the same time — and stocks women’s sizes from 0 to 30. If you are shopping for a dress nobody else at your school will be wearing, ask how they track it.
Prom is not the whole business. Top Cat handles quinceañera gowns made to order with matching accessory packages, pageant dresses, bridal and mothers’ dresses, and communion and baptism outfits for younger children. Tuxedo and suit rental runs through Jim’s Formal Wear, which is what most groups in this part of the state will be renting from anyway.
Before you drive in
The store’s online booking splits appointments into the categories that matter most:
- Prom dress — one hour
- Tuxedo & suits — fittings for prom groups as well as weddings
- Pageant — one hour
- Alterations — half an hour
Walk-ins are fine for most things; bridal is the one category they ask you to book so you get the room to yourself. Worth checking the hours before you commit to the drive — the listing on Jim’s Formal Wear shows weekdays until 5, Saturday closing at 2, and Sunday closed, which is a tight window if you are coming in from two counties over on a weekend.
808 Main puts the store in the middle of the downtown shopping district rather than out by the highway. There is a thrift store next door at 806, and Main Street holds several other apparel and gift shops within a couple of blocks, so shoes, alterations questions and a second opinion can all happen on the same trip without moving the car.