Cabell County runs three public high schools, West Virginia’s largest mall sits in the middle of the county, and Cabell Midland pulls its students straight out of Barboursville. That is the setting a dress registry was built for. When Bow Love Boutique opened its expanded space in August 2025, the announcement listed a homecoming and prom dress registry right alongside the gowns themselves. Registries exist for one reason: to stop two girls from the same school showing up in the same dress. Ask at the counter how theirs is recorded — by school, by date, by style number — before you buy, because the recording is the entire value of it.
What the store is now
Bow Love did not start as a gown store. The Huntington area visitors bureau still carries a listing for Bow Love as a children’s and women’s boutique, and the business has been filed at downtown Huntington addresses. The move that changed it was the August 2025 expansion down the JCPenney hallway, next door to Torrid; WSAZ, reporting on the grand opening, called it one of Huntington Mall’s largest stores. Owner Misty Lamp is quoted in that coverage. The store still sells the boutique side — everyday brands, jewelry, beauty, even gourmet snacks — so the formalwear shares the floor with the rest of it rather than sitting in a dedicated salon.
The gown labels
Three designers list this store on their own official retailer locators:
- Sherri Hill
- Ashley Lauren
- Ava Presley
In its own listing copy the store also names Jovani and Portia & Scarlett on the formalwear side. Those are the store’s words, not a locator confirmation, so treat them as worth a phone call if a specific label is what you are driving for. On the sizing question, the store describes its buy as covering a full range of sizes, and listing directories file it under plus-size clothing as well as dress shops — a reasonable sign that the rack is not stopping at a 12, though the only way to know what is on the floor in your size this week is to ask.
Getting there
Huntington Mall is at Mall Road and Interstate 64 in Barboursville, a few exits east of Huntington. It opened in 1981, holds more than 150 retailers, and is the biggest mall in the state; the anchors are Macy’s, JCPenney, TJ Maxx and HomeGoods, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream. Bow Love is suite 834. The mall directory lists the store on mall hours — 10 to 9 Monday through Saturday, 11 to 6 Sunday — which is a real advantage for a dress trip, because you can come after school and still have three hours on the clock.
Parking is the mall’s own surface lot, so the JCPenney end of the building is the door you want. And because the trade area here crosses into Ohio and Kentucky, a Saturday in season means the fitting rooms are shared with families who drove in from two other states. Weekday evenings are the quieter bet.