Every February the Carl Perkins Civic Center hosts a prom runway show called Lights, Camera, Fashion — dinner, a stage, and next spring’s dresses modeled by high schoolers from across West Tennessee, with the proceeds going to St. Jude. My Best Friend Jenna produces it. Owner Jenna Hamilton King has run the show since it started as a smaller prom runway event at Jackson State Community College; the 13th annual was held February 15, 2024, and the store is promoting the 15th for 2026. For a lot of families in this part of Tennessee, LCF is when prom shopping starts.
The store’s own account of itself is short and specific. Jenna finished a broadcast journalism degree at MTSU in December 2009, moved back home, and heard that a formalwear store was closing after 40 years in business. She opened My Best Friend Jenna in February 2010, at a Carriage House Drive address, in the middle of the recession. Prom came first. Bridal came later, and the shop credits the weddings held next door at Madison Downs Venue for pushing it that direction — the boutique and the venue share the 4506 address on the highway.
Getting there
Listings show this building as both 4506 U.S. 45 Bypass and 4506 Highway 45 North; it is the same place, in the 38305 half of town. The bypass carries traffic around Jackson, meets I‑40 at Exit 80A, and runs north to Vann Drive, which is where most of the newer retail in Jackson sits. Old Hickory Mall is a few minutes off on North Highland. The store describes its building as a farmhouse rather than a storefront, and appointments are booked ahead through its site instead of walked in cold.
Who drives in
Jackson calls itself the Hub City for a reason: it is the Madison County seat, a city of 68,205 as of the 2020 census, the trade center for West Tennessee, and about 70 miles east of Memphis. The four-county metro area — Madison, Chester, Gibson and Crockett — holds roughly 180,500 people, which puts Humboldt, Milan, Trenton, Alamo and Henderson inside a routine Saturday drive. In Jackson proper, that means students from North Side, South Side, Liberty Technology Magnet and Jackson Central-Merry, plus the private schools clustered on the north end: University School of Jackson, Trinity Christian Academy, Jackson Christian, Sacred Heart. LCF models have come from farther out than that; one year the show honored a boy from Medina being treated at St. Jude.
Labels and racks
These five prom and evening designers list My Best Friend Jenna as an authorized retailer on their own store locators:
- Jovani
- Terani
- Jessica Angel
- Dave & Johnny
- Johnathan Kayne
The store groups its business into prom and formalwear, bridal, and mothers’ dresses, and its prom page covers homecoming, pageant and evening gowns along with tuxedos for dates. Clearance hangs on what the shop calls Dolly’s Sale Rack, named for Dolly, a duck-hunting dog who reportedly preferred greeting customers at the dress shop to working.
Practical version: if you want a Jovani or Terani gown and would rather not drive to Memphis for it, this is a stocking retailer 70 miles closer. Call (731) 668-8813 or book an appointment, and do it before February if you want the pick of the LCF-season inventory.