Most prom stores sell one kind of dress. This Summerville shop runs two inventories in the same room. It is an authorized retailer for Alyce Paris, Amarra, Clarisse, Johnathan Kayne and Jovani, so a current-season prom gown can be ordered here the way any authorized boutique in the Lowcountry orders it. It also takes formalwear on consignment — prom, homecoming, pageant, bridal, bridesmaid, mother-of-the-bride — and sells those gowns off the same floor. The store puts its own count at more than 5,000 gowns on hand at any given time, in sizes 00 through 30.
That mix is the reason to make the drive, and it is also the reason the staff shop with you rather than leaving you to the racks. The shop says as much on its FAQ page: the inventory can be too much to work through alone.
The corner it sits on
The address is 900-C Bacons Bridge Road, and the store’s own directions are the ones a local would give: across from the Food Lion shopping center. That center is the Summerville Galleria at the Bacons Bridge and Old Trolley intersection, one of the busier retail corners in town — commercial leasing listings for the property put traffic there at more than 26,000 cars a day. Coming from Dorchester Road or I-26, Old Trolley is the road that gets you there.
Who this store is stocking for
Three big public high schools sit within a short drive, all in Dorchester School District Two, a district of roughly 25,000 students. Summerville High on Boone Hill Road enrolled about 3,290 students in 2023–24. Ashley Ridge, which opened in 2008 on Delemar Highway, was near 2,700. Fort Dorchester is on Patriot Boulevard in North Charleston. Those three are each other’s rivals, and their proms and homecomings are the bulk of the calendar here.
Two other seasons matter in this particular town. Fort Dorchester runs an Air Force JROTC program whose activity fee covers its Military Ball, and Joint Base Charleston holds its own Air Force Ball in September; the store stocks military ball gowns and one of the reviews on its site is from a mother shopping for an Air Force JROTC ball with her daughter. Pageant work is the other. Miss Summerville is an official local preliminary of Miss South Carolina and Miss America, with titleholders going on to the state competition in Columbia in June, and a Miss South Carolina contestant is quoted on the store’s site saying she bought her whole pageant wardrobe here. Pageant and bridal shoppers need an appointment; prom shoppers do not.
Selling a dress back
If you already have a formal gown sitting in a closet, this is also a place to resell it. The store keeps 50 percent of the sale price and handles cleaning, display and promotion. What it will take:
- Any dress that counts as formal — bridal, bridesmaid, prom, homecoming, mother-of
- No stains, no missing beads or stones, no odor, no tears or visible wear
- No appointment needed to drop off, though the shop suggests booking one if you plan to shop the same trip
Before you drive over
- Prom-season hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday noon to 7, Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday noon to 5. Closed Wednesdays year-round; fall Saturdays close at 5.
- Anyone under 18 needs a parent or legal guardian present to try gowns on.
- All sales are final. No refunds, no exchanges, and layaway deposits are final too — so the decision gets made in the store, not in the car on the way home.
- No food or drink inside.