When Shelonda Stokes walks out Thursday morning to deliver her annual report on the direction of downtown Baltimore, the reimagined hunter green power suit — disrupted by patches of denim and pops of sparkling brooches — is part of the message.

The neighborhood has lost hundreds of millions in property value since the pandemic. Office vacancy has never been higher. Nearly one-fifth of office space is empty, according to the report Stokes will present Thursday, up 4.8 percentage points from the same time last year. And ambitious redevelopment plans for Harborplace and the Superblock have yet to move.

Stokes, the president and CEO of Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, knew she had to strike a slightly different tone heading into this year’s annual State of Downtown Breakfast.

“[It’s] not a polished everything-is-great story, but an honest one,” she said of the message she will share.

Thursday’s report will show that 110,000 people work downtown every day and more than 40,000 call it home within a one-mile radius. CFG Bank Arena has been a major beacon, with 90 performances, 25 sold-out, and 814,000 people attending. The CIAA tournament has brought the city close to $110 million since 2022. And a new state law, which makes it easier for the city to negotiate tax breaks with downtown property owners, could encourage downtown development.

And the city is safer than it was five years ago, recording the fewest homicides in 48 years in 2025.

To say all that, Stokes turned to The Dollhouse Boutique owner and designer Natalie Karyl for help. Karyl’s proved she can speak the language of political fashion in a Baltimore accent.

She took a traditional tuxedo and “reworked it entirely” adding denim to the garment, Stokes explained. The result is something that is “polished and street-aware at the same time,” she said.

“That tension is exactly what I wanted,” Stokes said.

“It is evolving. It is transitioning into something more layered, more livable, more intentional. Natalie’s work reflects that in the most literal way.”

Stokes’ choice of Karyl continued her tradition of working with downtown-based designers, including Jody Davis and Different Regard.

It reminds Silver Spring-based celebrity stylist Pascale Lemaire of former first lady Michelle Obama, who made a point to highlight wearing American designers like Jason Wu, Tracy Reese, and Narciso Rodriguez throughout her time in the White House. Lemaire also styled then-second lady Jill Biden and then-Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for a 2016 Democratic National Convention moment that went viral.

Clothes send a careful message, she said.

“As a stylist, you have a responsibility as far as walking a line between putting someone in something that’s interesting, flattering, but also being mindful of their political position and what will be read into their choices and what they choose to wear,” Lemaire said.

In the case of Stokes, Karyl was able to properly anticipate the vibe of the event without needing a heads-up.

“It was an energy choice,” Karyl explained in reference to the color green. “I told her, It’s going to reflect all the things: the expansion, the prosperity — everything you want to do with downtown. It’s very intentional. It’s going to represent the growth, the vitality, the forward movement.’

“And she was like, ‘Oh, my God, this sounds amazing.’”

Karyl is a native Baltimorean with more than two decades of design experience who had spent the better part of the past decade splitting her time in Los Angeles while opening a second boutique.

Stylish women in the know looking for some streetwear edge — particularly Black women — have flocked to her Mount Vernon boutique for exclusive finds that have turned heads around town.

Karyl believes in building the confidence of her customer. She educates herself about her client’s style, personality, body image, feelings, and inner workings so she can “work from a canvas.”

Customers say they love Karyl’s honest disposition and willingness to apply that to her assessment of their styling.

“If a woman is not confident in what she’s wearing, it doesn’t matter how much the stylist is like ‘but this look is amazing for you,’” Karyl said.

This hands-on approach, with Karyl’s larger-than-life personality, turns shopping at her boutique into a social calendar event.

It regularly becomes the who’s who of Charm City where one minute you’ll be sipping mimosas next to Robyn Murphy, head of Create Baltimore, the group that runs ArtScape, or sashaying by a Biden-era appointed judge or sharing a floor-length mirror with Blake, who is also a customer.

They’re all there trying on peplum-accented frocks and looking to Karyl for sartorial approval on fits.

“They seek originality. They want to stand out,” Karyl explained. “When you are a woman that has the resources to pretty much get everything and anything that’s in your Nieman, Sachs and so forth, it’s very hard to still have your individuality.”

Banner reporter Giacomo Bologna contributed to this article.