Black and white editorial fashion photograph, 1990s aesthetic, elegant woman in tailored 90s outfit walking along Chicago's Magnificent Mile at dusk

A Personal Shopping Memoir · Chicago

The Mile: A Shopping Chronicle 1993–2000

Then & Now — A Personal Journey Through Chicago’s Most Iconic Shopping Corridors

The Archive

Issue No. 07

Vintage 1990s black and white photograph of an upscale department store window display on Chicago's Magnificent Mile

Magnificent Mile · 1994

The Window That Stopped Traffic

I saved for three months to afford one coat. The salesperson remembered my name the second time I walked in. That kind of attention doesn’t ship in two days. It happened on a Tuesday, under gold light, on the corner of Michigan and Chicago.

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State Street · 1997

Marshall Field’s, Ninth Floor

Frango mints in a green box, the clock we always met beneath, the escalator that felt like a runway. State Street was never just a place to buy things. It was where the city put on its best face and expected you to do the same.

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Moody black and white photograph of State Street Chicago in the 1990s, iconic department store storefront

On Retail, Then

“Before the internet changed everything, the store was the experience.”

Browse by Year

1993  Â·  1994  Â·  1995  Â·  1996  Â·  1997  Â·  1998  Â·  1999  Â·  2000

Browse by Corridor

Magnificent Mile  |  State Street

Stories From Chicago’s Golden Age Of Retail