It was a bright Saturday afternoon at Maplewood Mall in Chicago, where shoppers bustled in and out of designer boutiques. Inside Rosewood Apparel, a sleek women’s fashion store, racks of pastel blouses and tailored coats lined the walls. The air smelled faintly of expensive perfume, and the quiet hum of pop music filled the space.
Alyssa Carter, a seventeen-year-old Black girl, walked inside with an excited smile. She had saved money from her part-time job at a café for weeks, planning to buy a dress for her school’s upcoming spring formal. Alyssa loved fashion—she followed runway shows online and dreamed of studying fashion merchandising in college. Today, she was finally going to buy something she could feel proud to wear.
She wandered through the racks carefully, running her fingers along the fabrics. A pale pink satin dress with a modest neckline caught her eye. Alyssa held it up to her frame in the mirror and whispered to herself, “Perfect.”
