Fun dress shopping - where in LA?
 

We will be in LA next week to look at colleges and we have a full free day to do some shopping. My daughter would like to find a prom dress but she doesn't want the typical "formal" dress - looking for something more fun and trendy. Where are some places we could go? Looking more for small unique boutiques than mall or outlet shopping. Is Melrose a good place? Any other neighborhoods. Looking in the $200-$400 range.

Thanks!

wife loves Melrose and there are lots of funky shops.
Beverly Center is a great mall in Beverly Hills.
Just saw that High School's have dress code for Prom dresses so make sure the cleavage isn't too low or what they deem inapproriate.
Fred Segal's is another one of her fave's.
have fun!

I only know (and loved) Melrose (but it's been awhile) so hopefully others can confirm.

There are some neat, trendy shops in Silver Lake. We found fun, young-person designer dresses at low, low prices. a year ago.

I vote emphatically no on Melrose. It was fun like 20 years ago, but now is filled with tacky places selling cheap things. You will not find anything appropriate for prom here

Take her to the Robertson Blvd. shopping district. Just north of 3rd Street, just south of Beverly Bl. You'll find a couple blocks of fashionable and very popular boutiques. Some of the places are very expensive, but some are a little more reasonable, and you'll find interesting, fashion-forward stuff here. I'm thinking of Madison, Alice + Olivia, etc. It also wouldn't hurt to check out The Grove and The Beverly Center, which aren't too far away from Robertson. They have mostly chain stores (Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Nordstrom, etc.) but a few boutiques as well.

Have fun!

I back Erin's thoughts on Robertson, but it is a Fred Segals on Melrose, so you could always check out both areas since they are pretty close to each other. I know our friend's daughter who goes to Loyola still likes Melrose, but more for casual trendy versus prom/dressy styles.

Reading jpie's post, I realize that I was overly dismissive of Melrose. The area around Fred Segal (the Melrose & Crescent Heights area) has got some new and high end boutiques that are definitely interesting. It's the stretch east of Fairfax that's not so great anymore.

Thanks this is VERY helpful and exactly the kind of advice I was looking for!! The plan is to do the Grove on Friday late afternoon/evening to get Nordstroms, etc. covered, but spend Sat. doing more boutiques. We will try to hit Melrose around Fred Segal and Robertson Blvd.

Just want to thank you guys for this detailed info. We had a lot of fun shopping on Melrose and Robertson (that was great) and daughter found her prom dress!!

So glad jgg-is the dress very LA or more traditional?