Towson Town Center is roughly a quarter empty. The Towson Chamber of Commerce put storefront vacancy around 26 percent in 2026, after Apple, Banana Republic, Madewell and Tommy Bahama all cleared out. Ransom’s Boutique is still on the fourth floor, and in April and May it is one of the busiest rooms in the building.
The shop was founded in Towson in 1996 and is owned by Byron Ransom, who works the floor himself — fittings, phone calls, displays. When The Baltimore Banner spent a Thursday there at the end of April 2026, the store was in its 30th year of business and the showroom was crowded with students and parents. That is a long run for a formalwear shop anywhere in Maryland, and a longer one for a small independent tenant that has watched national chains leave the same mall.
Who actually shops here
The draw is not just Towson. The teenagers the Banner found trying on dresses and suits that afternoon came from Loch Raven High in Towson, Perry Hall High out toward White Marsh, Cristo Rey Jesuit in Baltimore City and New Town High in Owings Mills. That is a spread across county lines and across the city line, which tells you more about the store than any description of the inventory would.
It also matters that Ransom’s dresses both halves of the prom photo. Girls come for gowns; boys come for suits and tuxedos, and they are not just matching a cummerbund to a dress anymore. The Banner watched Ransom pin a glittering appliqué onto a velvet shoulder for a junior from Cristo Rey. Yelp’s listing for the store also notes tuxedo rentals alongside the designer special-occasion wear.
That column was about Black Baltimore prom culture and the online sneering directed at it, and Ransom’s was where the reporting happened. Ransom’s answer to the sneering, in his words, is to add more sparkle.
“To me, it’s a privilege to watch them,” he told the paper. “That’s the joy, seeing them come into their own.”
Brands
Four labels list Ransom’s on their official retailer locators: Clarisse, Jasz, Jessica Angel and Terani. The store’s own brand page names several more, including Jovani, Portia & Scarlett, Primavera, Lara, Paul Rekhi and Sydney’s Closet, which is a plus-size specialist — worth knowing if size range is the thing that has made previous shopping trips miserable. The store also works homecoming, quinceañera, Sweet 16, bar and bat mitzvah, and wedding business, so the racks are not all prom all year.
Planning the trip
The mall sits where York Road, Dulaney Valley Road and Joppa Road meet; from the Beltway it is exit 27, southbound, into the attached garages. Ransom’s is on the top level, at 825 Dulaney Valley Road.
Two things to sort out before you drive over. First, the store runs on appointments — the mall directory lists it as appointment only, and the shop’s booking page offers a 30-minute browsing slot, a 30-minute fitting and a one-hour custom appointment. Call (410) 832-7332 and book rather than turning up on a Saturday in April. Second, the mall has required shoppers under 18 to be with a parent or supervising adult 21 or older after 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays since 2016. A junior planning to shop alone after school on a Friday will get turned around at the door.
Timing depends on your school. Dulaney High’s 2026 prom ticket listing put the dance on May 15 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront downtown, which is typical of how Baltimore County proms run: mid-May, at a harbor hotel. Alterations and orders back that date up by weeks, so February and March appointments are not early.