The Tamesis
Wholesale boutiques may sound like a nostalgic throwback to the ’90s, but data proves the model still works, at least for now. Of the nine major prom-related brands tracked between February 2023 and May 2026, these three legacy brands — Sherri Hill, Jovani, Ashley Lauren — had a combined 96.4% engagement on TikTok, said Andrew Roth, CEO of Gen Z research firm Dcdx. Sherri Hill alone accounted for 82.4%. Other labels tracked include Mac Duggal, Faviana, Revolve, Lulus, Princess Polly and Anthropologie.
“We didn’t even consider [going DTC] Hill said that his sales have achieved double-digit annual growth for three consecutive years; since 2022, the cumulative growth has been 64.3%.
The annual routine hasn’t changed much since the designer started making the gowns in 2008: Sherri Hill joins other traditional prom venues in gathering twice a year at Atlanta’s AmericasMart, where three entire exhibit floors are dedicated to proms. Retailers like Cruse of Miss Priss attend in August to place orders for next year’s prom and in April for homecoming.
For the model to work, the wholesaler-boutique relationship needs to be perfectly balanced, Hill and Cruise explained. Hill promised exclusivity for her boutique (for example, another Sherri Hill retailer wouldn’t be allowed to open near Miss Priss), and Cruise in turn moved her clothing.
“Honestly, that’s the model that works best. We just found out that’s what works best for us,” said Liza Greenberg. She has worked with Hill for a decade, ever since she began modeling ball gowns (she now handles sales for the brand).
Hundreds of miles north in Manhattan’s Garment District, Abraham Maslavi runs the showroom of Jovani, the ball and bridal shop his father founded in 1983. Jovani sold more than 107,000 ball gowns this season alone, according to Felicia Garay-Stanton, the brand’s head of public relations. Prom accounts for about 40% to 45% of Jovani’s annual sales; eveningwear and mother-of-the-bride or groom collections account for another 40%, with the remainder going to homecoming, bridal and couture.
Jovani’s prom dresses can cost as much as $5,000 (its average dress sells for $900; by comparison, many e-tailer Polly Princess styles are available for just $100), but according to the designer, some of the brand’s strongest sales are in low-income areas like West Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi, where the system for attending prom is strong even though per capita income in those areas is well below the national average. “West Virginia is the poorest state per capita,” Masrawi said. “We sell a lot of dresses there. It always baffles me. The fact that everyone is helping that prom girl get the best dress for this time in her life. The whole family is involved.”
Economist Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, has been tracking the cost of attending prom — dresses, suits, shoes, hair, nails, dinner, transportation — since 2014 after being surprised by the cost of his own children’s prom tickets. To the surprise of many parents, he found that prom remains one of the more affordable ceremonies, up about 47 percent since 2000, while the consumer price index has increased 93 percent. However, by 2026, the tariffs did cause clothing prices to rise by about 10%. Maslavi said that tariffs on imported fabrics from China and India are as high as 50%, forcing Jovani to increase retail prices by about 20%: the first significant price increase in nearly a decade. The brand bears the remaining tariff costs itself.
