Verona Collection

I want to spend a minute on Verona Collection, because the whole reason this boutique exists tells you something important about American retail in the last decade.

Verona Collection was founded by Lisa Vogl, who converted to Islam in 2011, and her partner Nadine Abu-Jubara. Lisa had wanted a career in fashion photography that aligned with her moral values. Together they built Verona as a company for Muslim women who want to be fashionable but still adhere to their religious beliefs. What started as an online company expanded into a brick-and-mortar store at Orlando Fashion Square Mall — and according to multiple reports, it was one of the first Muslim women's clothing stores to open in a mainstream American shopping mall. That's a milestone.

The store sits at 3201 E Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, at one end of the Fashion Square mall, and it stocks:

• Long-sleeved caftans in a range of colors and fabrics — the kind you can wear as a dress or as a summer cover-up
• Full-length slit-less skirts (the "slit-less" part matters; finding long skirts without a thigh slit in American retail is surprisingly difficult)
• More than 300 varieties of hijabs — satin, chiffon, jersey, modal, printed, solid, everyday, occasion
• Modest separates — long-sleeved tops, modest dresses, sportswear

What I love about Verona is the mainstream placement. The boutique is between a karate store and a comic-book shop — not buried in an Islamic-goods strip mall. Walk the food-court concourse and turn the corner and there it is, right among the national retailers. That visibility matters. It signals that modest fashion isn't a niche curiosity; it's a mainstream category in American retail. Every Muslim shopper who walks in sees herself represented. Every non-Muslim shopper who walks past learns that modest fashion exists as a choice.

The sportswear line is one of Verona's claims to fame. For Muslim women who want to swim, hike, work out, or play sports while staying covered, finding athletic modest wear used to mean cobbling together options from a dozen sites. Verona designs for that market, thoughtfully. If you have a daughter heading into middle-school sports and you want her in modest athletic gear, Verona is one of the first places I'd check.

A few practical notes. Mall hours apply — roughly 10 AM to 9 PM most days. Sales and clearance can be strong; follow Verona on Instagram for drops. Pricing lands in the affordable-boutique range, not fast-fashion cheap but not intimidating either. Orlando locals often make a trip out of it with a friend, lunch at a nearby halal restaurant, and an afternoon at Verona. That's a whole date.

What I want you to remember about Verona Collection: when Lisa Vogl converted to Islam in 2011 and couldn't find clothing that fit her values and style, she didn't resign herself to mail-order or compromise — she built the store she wished existed, and then fought her way into a mainstream American mall with it. That's the entire ethic behind The Ethical Local. Business as values, values as business.

The Amara take: Shop here in person if you can. Follow them online. Tell the Muslim women in your life. Visibility built this boutique — let's keep it visible.