Most formalwear shops add pageant gowns to a prom business. This one went the other way. Owner Anita Seraichyk competed in her first pageant at eight, and by her own account opened the store because she could not find a New England shop that understood pageant dressing. Bridal, mother-of-the-bride and prom came later. The store credits gowns it sold to Caroline Parente, Miss Rhode Island 2023, and to Chhavi Verg, Miss New Jersey USA 2017 — Parente went on to finish fourth runner-up at Miss America 2024, the first Rhode Island contestant in the top five since 1968, and Verg was first runner-up at Miss USA.
That history is worth knowing before you book, because it shapes what a prom appointment here is. The pageant labels on the racks — Jovani, Mac Duggal, Sherri Hill Couture, Rachel Allan, Johnathan Kayne — sit alongside the prom collections, and the people fitting you are used to judging how a gown reads from thirty feet away under stage lighting. Nothing is rented. Nothing is consignment or resale. The shop buys new stock directly from designers and says plainly that it does not sell pre-owned dresses.
Verified prom labels
Alyce Paris, Amarra, Colette, Dave & Johnny, Jessica Angel, Jovani and Tiffany Designs all list Infusion Boutique on their official retailer locators. The store’s own prom lineup also runs to Ellie Wilde, JVN, Mac Duggal, Rachel Allen, Colors, Tease Plus and Sydney’s Curvy Girls, with in-stock sizes posted online from 000 through 32 and W sizes alongside them.
How the shop actually operates
This is not a walk-in-and-browse store, and the details matter more than usual:
- Monday through Friday is 100% by appointment. Staff may not be on site if nothing is booked. Call or text to schedule.
- Saturdays take walk-ins as availability allows — recent posted hours have been roughly 10 to 3:30 — but an appointment guarantees you a stylist and a fitting room.
- A parent or guardian has to be present for a prom try-on. The store states this outright.
- No appointment fee, unlike a number of bridal shops in the area. In exchange they ask for two hours’ notice on a cancellation.
- Prom, pageant and mother-of-the-bride appointments are scheduled for one hour; bridal gets 90 minutes.
- There is a permanent sale rack of prom gowns at $250 and under, drawn from previous seasons.
- No alterations in house. They hand out names of local seamstresses instead, and argue that keeps the hemming bill lower.
- All sales are final, layaway included. No returns, no exchanges.
On timing, the store’s advice is specific: the rush starts right after MLK weekend, and January is when selection is best. Show up on a Saturday between January and March and expect to wait for a fitting room. They also note that designers have cut production since 2020, so a special order in your size and color needs lead time that February does not give you.
Getting there, and what else is on that road
669 Bald Hill Road puts the shop in the middle of Route 2, the busiest retail strip in Rhode Island — commercial listings on the same road cite daily traffic around 29,000 vehicles. Warwick Mall sits at 400 Bald Hill, and the plazas between them hold Target, Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble, DSW and TJ Maxx. Shoes, jewelry and lunch are all within a few hundred yards of the fitting room, which is the practical argument for this location over a standalone shop.
Warwick sends students to Pilgrim and Toll Gate, the city’s two remaining high schools since Warwick Veterans graduated its last class in 2016. West Warwick, Coventry, East Greenwich, Cranston East and Cranston West are all a short drive up or down Route 2 or I-95, and Bishop Hendricken is in Warwick itself. The nearest comparable inventory in any volume is over the Massachusetts line in Fall River, at a considerably larger store — worth knowing if you want a big-warehouse experience rather than an hour with a fitter who came up through pageantry.