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Alex Rozen, a sophomore at Carver High School, looks over a rack of prom dresses at party dress Express in Fall River.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

rom fever has taken over at Fall River’s party dress Express.

Teens hunt through racks of dresses — short, long, poufy, body-hugging, prints, solids, understated, bedazzled, embroidered — before carrying a bunch to the dressing room. They’ll try on a dozen or more while eager friends, moms and boyfriends wait patiently to give feedback on each one until they find “the one.” Sales associates make sure the cycle continues by lugging gown after gown back to the sales floor.

“For some of these girls it’s the first time they’ve ever dressed up like that,” said Party Dress Express owner Donna Holland. “It’s a big event for them and finding the dress is part of the ritual.”

It’s already late in the shopping season; most of the girls have proms coming up in just weeks. But choosing a dress isn’t something anyone in this shop takes lightly.

“They stay all day,” Holland said. “Not only that, but they come back. She’ll come once with friends, and then when she’s narrowed it down she’ prom dresses plus size ll come back with her mother.”

Over the last 15 years, Holland has carved out a niche with her 18,000-square-foot dress emporium in one of Fall River’s rehabbed mill buildings. The store boasts more than 5,000 dresses (prom, dress prom dresses plus semi-formal, bridesmaid’s, pageant, mother-of-the-bride and wedding gowns ), a selection that draws shoppers from Rhode Island, Boston, Cape Cod, Connecticut and beyond.

“This seems to be the place to come,” said Laure LeBlanc of East Greenwich while waiting for her daughter, Canaan LeBlanc, to come out of the dressing room. “They have hundreds of dresses. Why go to a bunch of different places when you have so much to choose from here?”

Canaan LeBlanc, 18, a senior at East Greenwich High School, has tried on six dresses today, but she’s been looking for about two months. That’s nothing, sample sale wedding dresses toronto sample sale wedding dresses toronto she said. Some of her classmates bought theirs as early as December or January.

Shopping later makes the process a little more agonizing. Not only are there fewer gowns on the racks, but many shops, including Party Dress Express and Ana’s Bridal in East Providence terani prom dresses on sale terani prom dresses on sale, register the dresses so they don’t sell the same style to two teens going to the same prom.

But since most of the girls going to East Greenwich High School’s senior prom post photos of their dresses on Facebook, LeBlanc already knows which styles are off limits.

prom dress shopping prom dress shopping has gone high-tech in other ways, too. Girls often take photos of themselves wearing the gowns, send them to friends, relatives and boyfriends from their cell phones, then wait for second, third and fourth opinions to ring in via text (by this time, the dressing room attendants, many of whom are high school students, have already weighed in).

This all generally happens after the teens have narrowed down their choices by pre-shopping online. “A lot of them probably know the inventory better than I do,” Holland said.

The dress a girl ultimately ends up with is influenced by her personal taste, of course, but also by industry and school-specific trends.

For instance tea length mother of the bride dresses plus size , poufy Cinderella-style gowns aren’t “in” at East Greenwich High School. The students there tend to favor sleek silhouettes, low backs and cut-outs.

“It’s almost like the less the better at my school, but we still like to look couture,” LeBlanc said.

Overall, styles are getting more sophisticated, reports Party Dress Express buyer Jessica Cordeiro. She says that high-low styles (short in the front and long in the back), short dresses , prints and one-shoulder styles are popular this year.

In the last few years, dresses with low backs have become all the rage, and they’re still in demand. Jewel tones are always big, as are yellow and white this year, Cordeiro said.

“People used to say, you can’t wear white, that’s too much like a wedding dress, but I think everybody is getting more open-minded,” Cordeiro said. “Nobody’s really sticking to tradition anymore.”

But some brands have more cachet than others. The hottest prom designers right now include Tony Bowls, Sherri Hill, La Femme and Flirt.

“It’s almost like the Dior, Chanel and Valentino of the prom world,” LeBlanc said. “ sweetheart prom dresses under 200 ;Some of the dresses are extremely extravagant. You could pay $1,200 for a dress you’ll wear once.”

But that’s not the norm, at least at Party Dress Express, where most of the gowns cost $200 to $400.

Ultimately, summer wedding gowns lace summer wedding gowns lace LeBlanc settled on a La Femme champagne-colored strapless gown with beading on the bodice and an empire waist.

“I’m don’t think anyone else at my school has this ivory, gold-ish color, so I’m pretty excited about it,” LeBlanc said. “I just hope no one else gets the same dress.”

Party Dress Express,

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Fall River, (508) 677-1575, zoodress.com.