In 2016 we were working a retail gig at the mall & learned that Billings Montana did not have much to offer in Prom in sizes larger than a 14 and under $400. Since we did not have a girl in our life we were not aware of this, nor did it concern us. As someone who grew up with not having the ability to go out to buy a fancy dress, our heart hurt for this group of girls. Without much thought, we decided we needed to open a Prom Shop, making it mobile and travel around the area offering affordable dresses. This was in September and by November we had 300 prom dresses in sizes 2-24 in our home which moved into our mobile boutique and we traveled around Montana and Wyoming selling prom dresses. This stint lasted 6 weeks. People would call us about dresses and we had to tell them we didn’t have a store for them to shop. How does one sell dresses if they aren’t readily available to the public? So we moved. We moved into a 20×30 square foot space in a salon. People came and we saw a need for much more than Prom. Women were going on cruises and formal fundraisers. So, here we are again. Our head is spinning with more ideas.
So we moved AGAIN. This time we signed a 3 year contract and relocated our dresses into a 1200 square foot commercial space. And so it began. Now we had to expand into other things: casuals, shoes, etc. Three years later we learned a lot about business, retail, and the consumer and their shopping habits. So….We moved AGAIN. This time we moved to a beautiful historic 5000 square foot space in the shopping hub of downtown Billings. Now we had a real problem. We had too much space for our merchandise. So what does one do? We expand AGAIN. Now we are a destination for shoppers. Our casuals are in sizes S-6XL, shoes in 5-13 and a dress for every occasion in sizes 000-30. We are excited to have customers travel from Canada to shop, traveling from Wyoming, North Dakota and all over Montana to shop with us. It’s an honor to be chosen to be the recipient of someone’s business. We know that you can shop wherever you want so when you choose us, it means the world.
Barbara Wells
Barbara is a country girl from North Dakota who learned how to sew in 4-H. When other kids got to go school shopping, Barbara traveled to the fabric store where she got to pick out any fabric she wanted. She never had the luxury of shopping like her friends did. After graduation she attended North Dakota State University (Go Bison) and received a BS in Family & Consumer Science & Mass Communications. She later earned her Master of Education in Professional Development from University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Although she doesn’t feel she is a fashionista, she does know what it is like to save her money and be able to purchase something special. She also remembers her first store bought dress (Christmas concert, 3rd grade, green terry cloth from Target). She know what it’s like to feel special in something great and she wants to make each guest who enters her store to feel the same. So although she may not be a fashionista she does enjoy talking to her guests about fibers, cuts, lines and how all of these things can make a great outfit.
