The rule is simple and the shop states it plainly: it will not sell the same dress in the same color to two students from the same school. Every gown that leaves the store is logged against a school. For a senior at St. James High, that is the whole reason to drive to a shop on Inlet Square Drive instead of ordering online and hoping.
The store has been at 820 Inlet Square Drive since it opened in 2010, about fifteen minutes down the coast from Myrtle Beach on the South Carolina side of the Grand Strand. It stocks more than 700 prom dresses at a time, in sizes 00 through 28, and carries Alyce Paris, Clarisse, Jessica Angel, Johnathan Kayne and Jovani. Tuxedo and suit rental runs through Jim’s Formal Wear, so a date’s tie can be matched to the dress in the same visit.
How a prom visit actually runs
No appointment for prom — walk in Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 5. Bridal is appointment-only, which is why the two sides of the business feel different. Saturdays in season get busy enough that the store suggests calling ahead to ask about the wait, and it runs a system to keep the dressing rooms moving:
- You fill out a prom form at the door.
- You walk the floor and pull six dresses.
- A runner takes them and you get a dressing room.
- If all six are no, they go back on the rack and you give up the room, then pull your next six.
Two things worth knowing before you go. There are no holds — if a dress you tried on sells, the store may be able to special order it, but nothing is set aside on a promise. And there is no seamstress in-house; they keep a list of local ones they refer to. All sales are final, so the fit and the color have to be right in the store, not later.
What it costs
The shop publishes its ranges rather than making you ask. Prom dresses run $398 to $1,000, with budget racks and periodic sales below that. Tuxes and suits are $160 to $230. Their own advice is to start twelve to sixteen weeks before the dance, which for an April prom on the Strand means shopping around the New Year — early enough that a special order can still land in time.
Getting there when the landmark is gone
Inlet Square Mall opened in 1990 and closed to most tenants on January 15, 2024. Demolition started that summer, and the 434,000-square-foot enclosed mall the store grew up beside is largely gone; Floor & Decor opened on the site in September 2025 as the first new tenant, with a Home2 Suites approved nearby and more retail and restaurants planned. Belk and Planet Fitness stayed open through the work.
Practically, that means two things. The parking is not a problem, and it is not going to be. And if you tell your phone “Inlet Square Mall,” you may get sent to a construction fence — navigate to the street address off Highway 17 Bypass instead.
Who drives here
St. James High is the closest feeder, four miles inland on Highway 707 with about 1,800 students in grades 9 through 12. Waccamaw High in Pawleys Island, roughly 860 students in the Georgetown County district, is a short run south on 17. Beyond that the store draws from across Horry and Georgetown counties, and a review posted on its own prom page comes from a shopper who called the hour drive worth it. The same building also handles homecoming, pageant, mother-of-the-occasion and social occasion dresses, which is why the racks turn over more than once a year.
Murrells Inlet itself calls itself the Seafood Capital of South Carolina, and the half-mile MarshWalk boardwalk over the estuary is ten minutes from the store on Highway 17 Business. If the dress shopping is the reason for the trip, dinner on the water is a reasonable second stop.