If you have an old address for this store, it is out of date. Edith’s sold prom and bridal at 9 S. Main Street in downtown Fond du Lac for decades. Wisconsin shoppers heading there now will find the wrong building. The store reopened in 2026 at 36 N. Main Street, the former Wood’s Floral building, roughly a block north of where it always was. The phone number, (920) 921-2420, did not change.
The move came with new ownership. Tom and Cathy Deitte retired at the end of 2025 after running the business for decades — Tom had worked at Edith’s for 54 years — and sold it to Dave and Vicki Schmidt, who live in Fond du Lac. Dave grew up in Dotyville and had serviced the store’s phones and network through his IT company for more than twenty years before he bought it. Some of the existing staff stayed on through the transition, and the operation now trades as Edith’s Formal Wear. The business itself dates to 1937, when Edith Deitte Murphy opened a ladies’ clothing store downtown; it shifted to bridal after World War II and added tuxedos later. The old store’s pneumatic tube system, used to send receipts, was filmed for the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” in 2007.
What the prom side actually is
The store puts its prom count at more than 300 dresses, in junior sizes up to 20, hanging on the floor and available off the rack. Clarisse and Jessica Angel both list Edith’s on their retailer locators. Special orders on prom dresses are taken only before peak season, so a February or March shopper is buying what is in the building that day — worth knowing if you are driving in from Waupun or Campbellsport and want a specific silhouette.
Some practical mechanics, from the store’s own policies:
- Walk-ins are welcome for prom, homecoming, and special occasion. Appointments are required for bridal and for tuxedo or suit fittings.
- Alterations are not done in-house. Edith’s hands out a list of local seamstresses instead, so budget for a second stop and a second timeline.
- Special orders take 50% down with a signed contract. All sales are final.
- Tuxedo and suit sizing needs to happen six to eight weeks out; inside a week, a rush fee applies. Rentals come as a full package — jacket, pants, shirt, vest, tie, shoes — with a $50 deposit.
- Closed Tuesday and Sunday. Open until 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, which is the realistic window for a school-night trip.
The tuxedo counter matters more here than at most dress shops. Edith’s stocks and preps its tuxedos on site rather than ordering each one in from an out-of-state warehouse, which is why couples from the same prom often handle the dress and the suit in one visit.
Who drives here
Fond du Lac High School on Campus Drive enrolls around 1,900 students, and two private schools sit inside the same city — St. Mary’s Springs Academy, the Ledgers, and Winnebago Lutheran Academy, the Vikings, on East Merrill. Add North Fond du Lac, Oakfield, and the smaller districts spread across the county, and one downtown storefront is covering a lot of dance dates in April and May.
The alternatives are real but not close. Oshkosh is about 23 miles up I-41, roughly 25 minutes. Appleton and the Fox River Mall stores are about 43 miles, closer to fifty minutes. Nothing else in the city of Fond du Lac carries a prom floor this size. For families south and east of the lake, Edith’s is the shop you can reach on a weeknight without committing the whole evening to the highway.
Parking and the building
Street parking runs along Main, and there is a lot behind the building. Use the front door if stairs are a problem: it is at street level and the public areas of the store are all on the main floor, restroom included. The back entrance has steps.