Raise your hand if you’ve bought a prom, homecoming court, quince, pageant, bridesmaid’s dress, wedding gown or mother-of-the-bride or groom dress from Terry Costa.
Yep, that looks like at least half the women in Dallas.
“We know we’re part of someone’s special memories and we want to offer a great experience,” said Tina Loyd, CEO and owner of Terry Costa, the official sponsor of Miss Texas America and Miss Texas Teen America.
Loyd has wanted to update the store located at LBJ Freeway and Preston Road for years, but the pandemic delayed those plans.
A re-grand opening is scheduled for January 20.
The destination for formal dresses and gowns for 37 years has added more than 3,500 square feet to create a dedicated bridal salon with a grand arch and chandelier leading to private dressing rooms with each bride having a seating area for her guests. A walkway is just for brides to experience the wedding gown on the stroll down the aisle.
The existing 13,095 square feet have been remodeled with separate sections for prom and evening gowns. Depending on the season, 8,000 to 10,000 dresses are in stock. There’s a runway for fashion shows or customers who want to strut while trying on dresses.
The expanded 16,600-square-foot store’s improvements cost more than $1 million and includes eight more dressing rooms, six for brides only, for a total of 58 to accommodate its growing business.
“We’re separating the brides from the prom girls,” Loyd said. “Prom girls love the brides, but the brides want a more private experience. Curtains weren’t enough. That’s why we’re building walls.”
Only about 13% of the business is bridal now. Prom and evening wear have been the primary growth areas of the business which has annual sales in the seven figures.
“We made it through some hard times,” Loyd said. Demand picked up in 2021 and 2022 with delayed weddings, prom and other special events. Sales were up 53% in 2022, but this year, she said it’s been a struggle to be even with last year. She’s confident the bigger and reorganized store will be a boost and cut wait times for customers. During the pandemic, a new website was built and that expanded the store’s reach outside of Dallas.
Terry Costa is also heavy into social media. It’s an added expense to hire videographers, photographers and models to create content to post on Instagram and TikTok, where the brand has more than 800,000 followers.
“As I told my new intern class, social media is a beautiful thing but it’s a lot of work,” Loyd said. “Yesterday we did a photo shoot for prom and we didn’t have to do that before.”
Loyd bought the store from Terry Costa in 2007. She took out a Small Business Administration loan after earning a 15% stake working at the store the prior eight years.
She now has a full-time staff of 40 and adds 30 more people during the formal busy season from January to April. Some of the seasonal workers are interns from the University of North Texas where Loyd is on the Merchandising and Digital Retailing Advisory Board. Three members of the executive team at Terry Costa are UNT grads.
Terry Costa continued a tradition of having a teen board, something many stores stopped doing years ago. The young women are part of events, photo shoots an annual in-house fashion show planned for Feb. 4. Many want to be influencers and the program allows them to gain experience, Loyd said.
“We are not just selling dresses,” she said. “We are part of these special moments and we take that responsibility very seriously.”
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