Alexander High School’s address is 3600 E. Del Mar Blvd. My Dress is at 3910, suite 203, in Khaledi Heights Plaza. Same boulevard, a short drive east — close enough that for an Alexander student, looking at gowns is something you do on the way home rather than a trip you plan. Del Mar is one of north Laredo’s main east–west runs, so the store is also reachable without much thought from the neighborhoods off McPherson, Shiloh and Loop 20.
What makes formal shopping in Laredo different from most of Texas is that there is no nearby second option. The closest metro with a full run of prom retailers is San Antonio, about 156 miles up I-35 — roughly two hours and forty-five minutes each way, without a stop in Cotulla. Corpus Christi is about 145 miles the other direction. That distance is the reason a Laredo shop’s inventory matters more than it would in a city where you can hedge your bets across three malls in an afternoon.
The brands, verified
My Dress is an authorized stockist for three prom and evening labels, each of which lists the store on its own retailer locator:
- Alyce Paris
- Dave & Johnny
- Jessica Angel
That is the full list we could confirm. The store describes itself as a prom and evening gown shop, not a quince or bridal salon, so if you need a quinceañera gown or a mother-of-the-bride dress, call first rather than assume — (956) 701-3449.
Two formal seasons, not one
Most towns have a single spring rush. Laredo has February as well. The Washington’s Birthday Celebration runs most of the month and draws around 400,000 people, and its calendar is built partly out of formal events: the Society of Martha Washington Colonial Pageant and Ball, the Princess Pocahontas Pageant and Ball, and a citywide prom. The colonial costumes are their own separate world of custom work, but the surrounding balls, parties and photos put teenagers in gowns in February, weeks before anyone in a northern state has started looking. Then spring prom arrives on top of it. If you are shopping for both, the practical consequence is that the good February inventory moves in January.
Who shops here
The store sits in United ISD territory — Alexander, United, United South and LBJ — and United High is the largest campus in the city, with about 3,600 students. Laredo ISD’s Nixon, Martin and Cigarroa are closer to the river and downtown, and St. Augustine draws from across town. Because so many of those proms fall in the same few weekends, a dress that has already been seen at one school’s prom can turn up in photos from another. It is worth asking the staff directly what has already sold in your size and school.
Before you go
Hours run 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. The address is a numbered suite inside a shopping center, not a street-front window on the boulevard, so look for the plaza and then suite 203. New arrivals are posted steadily to Instagram (@mydresslaredo, about 31,000 followers) and to a Facebook page with roughly 76,000 followers — the fastest way to see what is currently on the racks before you make the drive in from Rio Bravo, Zapata or the north side.