The building explains the store. When Grafton Homes went out of business, its sample houses were auctioned off. Dale Hays bought the one in Fairmont, then hired three separate companies — one to take it apart, one to haul it eight or nine miles by tractor-trailer, one to reassemble it — on family land in Charles Pointe. House of Fashions opened inside that rebuilt house in 2010.
It still reads as a house. Because the place was built to show homebuyers ideas, the flooring changes from room to room, stamped concrete in one, hardwood in the next. The prom showroom was modeled after a three-stall garage. That was deliberate: co-owner Keri Hays Snell told the Bridgeport CVB that her mother wanted a building that looked like a house because it would be “more inviting” than a big steel shell.
The shop is a mother-daughter operation. Keri does the buying and competed in pageants herself; she went to Grafton High School and took an engineering degree from WVU before coming back to open the store. Her mother, Lisa Hays, sewed the pageant and dance gowns Keri wore as a girl and handles the fit side of the business.
What is actually in stock
Prom and homecoming gowns are all floor stock — nothing to order and wait on — in sizes 00 through 30. The store puts its count at more than 1,500 gowns. Three brand authorizations are confirmed on the designers’ own retailer locators:
- Amarra
- Ava Presley
- Jovani
Bridal works the other way: roughly 100 sample gowns to try, then measured and ordered in the bride’s size, with alterations done in-house. Brides are asked to book an appointment. The store also fits tuxedos and carries shoes, jewelry and headpieces, which matters if the drive in is a long one and you would rather not make a second trip.
Getting there, and who else is coming
Charles Pointe is a planned mixed-use development off I-79 in north central West Virginia; the developer directs southbound traffic off at Exit 124 and east onto WV 279, with the main entrance about six-tenths of a mile up the hill. Meadowbrook Mall, open since 1982 and pushing 850,000 square feet, sits a few minutes west, so a dress trip and a shoe trip can be the same afternoon.
The nearby prom crowd got larger recently. Liberty High School in Clarksburg closed in 2025 and its students moved to Robert C. Byrd, which the superintendent projected would put RCB near 1,100 students, the biggest high school in Harrison County. Bridgeport High School on Johnson Avenue runs a little over 800. Add South Harrison in Lost Creek and Lincoln, and four county proms now feed one retail corridor.
Alternatives carrying the same labels are not close. Amarra’s locator lists its next West Virginia stores north in Morgantown, and the rest down in Poca and Milton, hours away by car. The 2020 feature on the store noted shoppers driving in from as far as several hundred miles.
Before the drive
Call ahead with a style number if you have one screenshotted — the staff can tell you whether that dress is on the floor and in what size before you spend the gas. Book if you are shopping bridal. Across 67 Google ratings the store averages 4.8.