Around Oxford, Lola's is known as the downtown boutique for jeans, sweaters and the handbag you didn't plan to buy. Fewer know the formal side. It runs under its own name, It's SO Lola's, and it is where many southern Chester County girls end up when prom season starts to feel real.
There is a catch. You can't wander in and flip through racks. Every formalwear shopper books a one-hour slot, and each girl trying on needs her own booking, so two friends shopping together means two appointments.
Appointments are required in order to ensure you have the best possible shopping experience with a one on one stylist here to help you find the perfect dress.
The formalwear FAQ gives that as the reason for booking. An hour sounds short until you are in the room. The FAQ calls it "the perfect amount of time to try on a large selection without getting overwhelmed," and anyone who has watched a junior spiral through forty dresses at a big store will understand the logic.
The prom labels on the rack
Six prom designers make the formalwear menu:
Homecoming has its own section, and so does cocktail. The size range is the part that surprises people. The formalwear page lists sizes from 000 to 26, which covers nearly every body in a graduating class without anyone being told to try the plus store instead.
Whether a gown leaves with you that day comes down to whether it is in the building.
In the building
Every gown is for sale right off the rack
- Fall for a sample and take it home that day
Not in the building
The shop will order the style or size
- Its advice on timing is blunt and correct: shop early
Formalwear tends to run smaller than street sizes, so go by measurements rather than the number you wear in jeans. Every formalwear sale is final. Plan on a seamstress too; the shop's own policy says alterations should be expected on every gown, so budget for a fitting after the dress comes home.
Oxford, Avon Grove and the Maryland line
Oxford sits at the bottom of southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, close enough to two state lines that the store lists its service area as Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and beyond. Oxford Area High School is the home school, and the circle spreads to Avon Grove High School in West Grove, Octorara Area High School up toward Atglen and Kennett High School to the east. Cecil County families from just across the Maryland line come up as well.
The formalwear entrance is at the back of the building, off Broad Street, so don't circle Third Street looking for a door. Downtown Oxford is compact and walkable, so it's an easy stop to fit around other Saturday errands.
Mothers get attention here as well, with a dressier collection of their own, which makes it handy when a family has a prom and a wedding in the same spring.
Booking an hour at It's SO Lola's
Can I walk in to look at prom dresses?
No. Appointments are required for all formalwear shopping, they last one hour, and every person trying on dresses books her own slot through the store's booking page.
Do the in-store dresses cost less than ordering?
No. The shop doesn't discount gowns bought off the rack. The advantage is speed: you can leave with the dress the same day.