The sign on Main Avenue reads Pat’s Fashions and Tax Service, and both halves are literal. Pat Armstrong opened the clothing store in 1972 and later added her accounting practice in the same building; because the two businesses shared an address, the IRS told her the name had to say so. She has been running both ever since. WV Living, which profiled the shop in 2023, put her tax volume at about 2,000 returns a year.
For a family shopping for prom, the useful part is what that means about the store: it is a working general clothing shop in a downtown, not a formalwear salon. Gowns hang in a building where people also buy jeans and shoes and drop off a W-2 in March.
Where this is
Pineville is the seat of Wyoming County in southern West Virginia, a town of 648 people at the 2020 count, sitting where WV 10, 16 and 97 come together on Rockcastle Creek. Castle Rock, the sandstone formation the creek is named for, stands over the town. The Pinnacle Creek trail system of the Hatfield–McCoy network connects directly to Pineville and Mullens, so side-by-sides on Main Avenue are ordinary traffic here most of the year.
The schools this store dresses
Wyoming County has two high schools: Westside in Clear Fork and Wyoming County East in New Richmond, each with somewhere around 450 to 550 students across grades 9 through 12, per federal school data. The Wyoming County Career & Technical Center is in Pineville itself. Students come in from Mullens, Oceana, Baileysville, Brenton and Herndon, and Pineville is roughly the halfway point on the drive between Gilbert and Beckley, which pulls in shoppers from the Guyandotte side as well.
At those enrollments, a graduating class is small enough that two girls in the same dress is a real possibility rather than a hypothetical. Say your school’s name out loud when you shop, and ask what has already gone out the door to it.
Brands and what else is on the racks
Alyce Paris and Tiffany Designs both list Pat’s Fashions on their official retailer locators, so those two prom lines are confirmed here. The shop is also a Jim’s Formal Wear affiliated tuxedo rental location, which means a couple can get the dress and the tux measured in the same building on the same afternoon — not a small thing when the alternative involves two trips out of the county.
Beyond prom, the 2023 magazine visit found Simply Southern, Judy Blue and Kancan jeans, ready-to-wear racks, shoes and accessories, alongside formalwear from several other labels. Stock rotates, and a store this size does not carry every size in every style at once. Call before you drive.
What the drive looks like if you skip it
- Beckley is about 30 miles and 45 minutes northeast on WV 97 through Maben and Slab Fork. Jean Ann’s Bridal sits at Beckley Crossing; Fit For A Queen is at Crossroads Mall in Mount Hope, farther on.
- Logan County’s prom and pageant option, Glitzi in Chapmanville, is a separate trip in the other direction.
- From Oceana, Gilbert or Baileysville, Pineville is the short version of that errand by a wide margin.
The phone number is (304) 732-6700. There is no store website on file — the shop posts to Facebook instead, and the Jim’s Formal Wear listing shows weekday hours running to 7 p.m., Saturdays to 5, closed Sunday. Hours at an owner-run store change; confirm by phone if you are coming from over the mountain.