Lex's of Carytown owner Lisa McSherry has expanded the boutique's inventory to include more than 20 bridal lines. (Photo by Jay Paul)
With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Lex’s of Carytown owner Lisa McSherry says, the formalwear boutique experienced a 90% loss in revenue due to the cancellation of proms, which make for the boutique’s most profitable season. Unsure of how to compensate for the dramatic drop in profits, McSherry noticed an amplified interest in casual wedding apparel from brides who were no longer able to plan their large affairs and were now looking to host intimate ceremonies. So the shop brought in bridal lines, and the dresses were a hit.
Many of the boutique’s bridal offerings are sourced from formalwear designers already found in the store, such as Jovani, Alyce Paris and Cinderella Divine. New brands include Martin Thornburg and Demetrios Bridal, with Lex’s serving as the exclusive area retailer for Demetrios and Sherri Hill. The shop has about 20 bridal lines with more being added and most of the dresses cost $500 or less. “I can’t tell you how many brides who came in the store, saw the prices and bought two dresses,” McSherry says. “They’re like, ‘This is less than what I was gonna pay for one, so I’m just going to get both of these.’ ”
The idea being, with two dresses, one can be worn for the ceremony and one for the reception or other events such as the wedding shower, rehearsal or bridal brunch. McSherry refers to the casual wedding apparel as destination dresses, but she’s also brought in higher-end lines for brides looking to go all out on a dream dress, which can run $2,000 to $3,000.
McSherry says that early in the pandemic, brides were shopping for less expensive, simpler gowns, which she attributes to the rise in backyard weddings last year. However, she’s noticing a return to more elaborate gowns. “As venues started picking up, and the amount of people [allowed has risen], now we find people coming in … and they want the big wedding gowns, but for every one of those, there’s probably still 10 that want destination bridal dresses,” she says.
There has also been renewed interest in mothers-of-the-bride (and groom) apparel, so much so that the boutique has added eight additional lines. And these aren’t your grandmother’s formal event dresses of the past, they’re stylish ensembles that are also form-flattering for customers “wanting something that is age appropriate but still has a little sex appeal to it,” McSherry says. “We have really good experience from coming from the prom world … so I think we have a little edge on picking the right mother-of-the-bride dresses out that aren’t quite so older looking.”
There’s also the potential to outfit all the women in the wedding party, since Lex’s is already a local destination for bridesmaid apparel. McSherry says with the increased interest in bridal at the boutique, her bridesmaid business has picked up, but currently there are no plans to expand the lines she offers, noting that the designers they carry are “tried and true.”
McSherry says that while the addition of bridal lines was unplanned, it was an easy expansion because the boutique’s stylists are already well versed in formalwear. “We’ve been known in the industry for 25 years as the place to go for your formal gown,” she says, “and now we’re the place to go for your formal and bridal needs.”
