White House Black Market is Briarwood’s newest women’s clothing store. Its name derives from the store’s gradually expanding color palette. Originally two Baltimore chains of boutiques that had even more limited color tolerances (White House for your whites and ivories, and Black Market for your basic blacks), they merged into one store and eventually were bought out by Chico’s. There are now 300-and-some of them.
Store employees are not allowed to engage with media, and the corporation doesn’t seem to like it much either. The phone number the two employees were instructed to give us was Chico’s main corporate office, which on Friday afternoons–which this was–goes to an automated attendant.
Based on a look around, we can report that while black and white are still prominent, shades of red pop up a lot, too. Style-wise, these appear to be clothes for young women who dress to look politely hot; they’re moderately well made, though not in the same league as Ann Taylor across the hall.
White House Black Market, Briarwood, 913-6954. whitehouseblackmarket.com
