Helen was 35 when she signed the lease on a small storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Newly divorced, with a daughter to raise on her own, she wanted something that belonged to her — only to her.
She painted the walls herself, hung the first dresses on wooden hangers, and turned the key on a Tuesday morning. Nobody came for three hours. Then a woman walked in, tried on a linen dress, and bought it. Helen still remembers her name.