On its Jim’s Formal Wear retailer page, Black Tie of Huron describes itself as the wardrobe sponsor for Miss South Dakota and Miss South Dakota’s Teen with the Miss America Organization, and for Miss SD Volunteer. That is worth knowing before the drive. The staff fitting a junior for prom are the same people outfitting the women who compete for the state title, and the same listing puts pageant work first in its description of what it stocks.
The store sits at 350 Dakota Ave S in downtown Huron, in central South Dakota. The Better Business Bureau profile gives 1991 as the founding year; the store’s own chamber listing calls it a second-generation, family-run business, and its Jim’s Formal Wear page said 32 years in business. Dakota Avenue is also State Highway 37, which means downtown’s main street is a state route. The South Dakota Department of Transportation rebuilt that corridor in a roughly $19 million project, with full closures and detours onto 3rd Street South, Lincoln Avenue and U.S. Highway 14 during 2025.
What it carries
Faviana and Jovani both list this store on their official retailer locators, and Faviana’s site notes the store also stocks its Celebrate Yourself fragrance. The store’s own service list adds pageant and couture, quinceañera dresses, budget prom, homecoming, bridesmaids, shoes and jewelry. Men’s suits and tuxedos are available to rent or to buy through Jim’s Formal Wear. Tanning and spray tanning run out of the same building, and the business also operates a limousine service for private and corporate groups — which is how a single storefront ends up covering most of one prom night.
No two of the same dress at the grand march
South Dakota prom is a public event. Schools open the night with a grand march in a gym or arena, where couples are announced and walked in front of the whole town; Mitchell High School has staged its grand march inside the Corn Palace. Every dress is seen, photographed and compared.
That is the backdrop for the store’s dress-tracking practice: in its own words, it tracks prom dresses to the prom so that no one shows up in the same style and color. If a gown has been sold into a particular school’s prom, it is logged. The store also states it works on real fittings with a guaranteed fit rather than shipping a box.
Appointments and prices
Booking is by appointment type, and the tiers are priced on the store’s own booking pages:
| Appointment | Fee |
|---|---|
| Classic (for gals or for guys) | Free |
| Glam Experience | $35 |
| Group Glam Experience | $75 |
| Luxury Experience | $75 |
| Group Luxury Experience | $100 |
| Quinceañera Classic | Free |
| Wedding party Classic | Free |
Spray tans are booked the same way, from $40 for Natural Glow to $50 for Midnight Bronze. As of this writing the store’s website carries an under-construction notice, with the appointment booking pages live and updates pushed to its Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts instead. Two separate retailer listings show the store closed on Tuesdays; call (605) 352-5400 to confirm before driving in, since posted hours differ between listings.
Who shops here, and what else is within range
Huron had 14,263 residents in 2020 and an estimated 14,515 in 2024, and it is the Beadle County seat. Huron High School, at 701 18th Street SW, enrolled 853 students in grades 9–12 in 2023–24 and competes in the Eastern South Dakota Conference as the Tigers. The district overall runs nine schools and about 2,900 students.
Those students are not who a national dress chain would predict. Huron’s school district became majority-minority in the 2010s; South Dakota Searchlight reported that by the start of the 2022 school year white students outnumbered Hispanic students by fewer than 300, with Asian students the third-largest group. Karen refugees from Myanmar began arriving in 2006 for work at the Dakota Provisions turkey plant, and Huron has since become one of the Midwest’s centers of Karen life, with churches of its own. Jack Link’s runs a plant in Alpena, about 20 miles south. A quinceañera appointment is a standing category on the booking page, not an accommodation.
Distance is the other fact shaping this store. Sioux Falls is about 126 driving miles away. The other South Dakota shops on Jovani’s retailer list are in Aberdeen, Yankton and the Sioux Falls area, all of them well over an hour from Huron in different directions. For families in Beadle County and the James River valley, this is the shop that does not require a day off work.