Concrete Roze Is The New Black-Owned Co-Op Closet Service Dedicated To ‘Healing Through Fashion’

“The least, the lost, and the left out.” That’s what Rosalynn Glover grew up hearing from her late minister father—words that weren’t just a church motto, but a mandate. Before Concrete Roze—which is a Black-owned co-op closet service that allows women to swap, donate, and borrow clothing—launched late last year, it was an elementary-school memory. Glover tagging along to her dad’s clothing drives, helping set up tables like a tiny merchandiser-in-training, and watching women light up as they >Mount Bethel Human Services Corporation, passed away in 2023. But the work—serving the people too often forgotten—didn’t stop with him. It simply shifted form. “From that moment, I’m like, there’s something here.” That “something” is now Concrete Roze. Part archive, part access point, part sisterhood, the brand was built on the belief that what we wear holds our stories, and that Black women deserve a fashion experience that sees us fully. Because for many of us, clothing isn’t just clothing. Those garments become time capsules. “Fashion is expression,” Glover says. “The way we express ourselves through clothing…is unmatched.” 

Concrete Roze leans into that truth by being highly curated. Before anyone receives a box, the brand sends a target=”_blank”> View this post on Instagram

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Boxes typically include about four to six pieces (averaging five), with a value of $200+, and the brand is exploring the option of a monthly subscription—without making customers feel locked into one. The point is choice, not obligation.

“It allows women the chance to give to another woman that will absolutely love the product,” Glover explains. The brand even incentivizes donors with money off purchases, helping women “edit” their wardrobes while still getting something meaningful in return.

But Glover’s archival lens is also political: it’s about whose fashion stories are valued. She points to how many resale and rental platforms don’t center Black women. “When looking at what [competitors] have to offer, it does not center us whatsoever,” says Glover. “The clothing is not really what we wear.” Her goal is to “have our ear to the streets” and build an ecosystem where Black women can rent, try, and access pieces that reflect what we actually want—without the price gatekeeping that often comes with supporting Black designers.

As much as Concrete Roze is about clothes, it’s also about what clothes unlock. Glover calls her vision “healing through fashion.” She’s intentional about not limiting her customer to one age group: older Black women, she notes, want to experiment too, but may not want to gamble on a pricey one-off purchase they might regret. 

Rebuilding Concrete Roze in her father’s honor became part of that rebuilding. “I want to become everything that they knew I could be,” she says of her father and her best friend—her biggest cheerleaders. When they were gone, she had to learn to root for herself. And she did.

And if Concrete Roze becomes an archive in the long term, it won’t be because it preserved designer labels in pristine bags. It will be because it preserved something more intimate: the proof of Black women living, evolving, and choosing themselves. “I want them to see Black excellence,” she says. “But I also want them to see the stories of what can happen when you let things go.”

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TOPICS:  Black-owned fashion brands fashion archive secondhand clothing

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