How does a former museum director end up with a shop in Delano? Not on purpose

Jillian Forsberg never considered a long-term career in retail, but that’s not only what happened, she now owns her own store.

She purchased the Dress Gallery at 1007 W. Douglas in Delano, where she’s worked since 2010, from April Huang, who founded the popular store in 2008.

“It’s been quite an adventure that I certainly did not expect to take on when I walked in her store in 2010,” Forsberg said.

Originally, Forsberg worked at a McPherson bridal store while she was working on her undergraduate degree. When she went to Wichita State University for a master’s degree in history with an emphasis in public history, Forsberg applied to every bridal store in Wichita but only heard back from Huang.

Even when she graduated, Forsberg kept working there on weekends to make extra money.

Only after working for a couple of area museums did she decide that that wasn’t for her.

“That was a difficult realization for me.”

She asked Huang for full-time work, but Huang said she didn’t think she could pay her what she had been making. Forsberg said nonprofit salaries aren’t hard to top.

In 2014, Forsberg became manager. She was there as the store expanded and later remodeled, and she helped it get through the pandemic when a lot fewer people were in need of bridal gowns and formalwear.

Forsberg also helped Huang separate her prom business from the store’s bridal business.

Huang opened Occasions by Dress Gallery at Normandie Center in the fall. She’s keeping that store and focuses exclusively on gowns for formals and for bridesmaids and mothers of brides and grooms.

Forsberg readily agreed to focus only on bridal gowns and accessories along with tuxedo sales and rentals. She said the items bring two opposite energies, “And unfortunately the busy seasons are the same.”

With the arrangement, Forsberg said Dress Gallery is able to have more bridal gowns on its floor than ever before.

Some people, however, are still confused about the change in what Dress Gallery sells.

Also, “I just want them to understand the continuity of what happened,” Forsberg said of being there for so long.

She said she’s not changing the name because “Dress Gallery has such a huge presence in the community,” and brides come from around the state.

Forsberg and Huang made the cover of Vows, the industry magazine for the bridal store business, before Huang left. It was as Huang was the outgoing owner, which Forsberg said was good because owners are featured on the cover only if they’ve had a store at least 10 years.

“If they had contacted me a month later, I would not have been able to be on the cover,” Forsberg said.

It also happened to be that Huang had made it her goal at the start of last year to wind up on the cover of Vows, and it turned out to be her last chance since she then sold her business.

“This was actually a really beautiful story,” Huang said.

Forsberg not only has purchased the Dress Gallery this year, but she’s also returning to what she called her history roots.

Publisher History Through Fiction is publishing Forsberg’s debut novel of historical fiction this fall.

Forsberg will share more information then.

As she said in an e-mail, “It’s been a remarkable time in my life to see all of my dreams come true.”