Sally LaPointe Is Ready For Her Next 15 Years In Fashion

8

This year, Sally LaPointe‘s namesake label turns 15—and she’s taking a moment to reflect! Known for her dynamic, sleek womenswear, LAPOINTE’s Fall 2025 show will colorfully storm the runway today at New York Fashion Week. Below, we chat with Sally on her label’s special anniversary, loyal celebrity following, collaborating with Oprah, and what comes next.

You’re celebrating 15 years in business! That’s major. What’s the secret sauce to your success?
I started the company with my best friend and business partner [Sarah Addison] from the beginning. It was the two of us. That relationship is everything. The reason we’re still here today…she took on the business side, and I was the creative side. The partnership between that yin and yang, having different strengths that the other one didn’t, and being able to work through that over 15 years, honestly, is the number-one thing I will say to anyone. I could have never done it alone. It truly is the partnership between her and I, and we just keep each other in check. If there’s one thing I could say, it’s that that relationship that has kept us going.

Walk us through the day you launched your brand. What lit the spark to initially take on this project?
It’s funny because Sarah and I have been talking about it a lot, and we’re bringing up all these memories. We’re like, “Oh my god, we forgot about that.” But I always knew I had something to say, and Sarah believed in me and knew how to amplify it or execute it. It’s always been about the values that Sarah and I hold, and that seeps into everything I do. People a lot of times ask me “Oh, who is your customer?” It’s hard to say exactly who she is, what she looks like, what she does. It’s never about that. For me, it’s truly about the way that people feel in my clothing. It’s about empowerment and being individual, confident, and doing it yourself. That was the first little seed. I knew that what I could do would reach the customer on deeper level, rather than just “Oh, it’s a dress that you wear to X.” It  really is about a feeling.

LAPOINTE Fall 2023

When did you first realize the Lapointe brand was becoming successful?
When women started coming out to me being like, “I wore your dress to my niece’s wedding, and I felt like the coolest woman in the in the room.” When I started hearing feedback from the women wearing it, I was like, “Okay, this is actually really amazing.” And people really connect to it on a deeper level. Sometimes it would be a little bit more specific. I remember, it was a couple seasons in, and Sarah and I were in Paris at a fabric show. We got word that Bergdorf’s was going to pick us up. Combined with what women were saying to us, plus, a major retailer stepping behind us, was when we were like, “Okay, I think that we can actually really build this brand.”

What’s a major challenge you’ve faced in your career—and how did you overcome it?
I’m self-taught, and I don’t come from a famous background, any type of fancy internship, or any connections in the industry. Previously, I had to do every single thing from the ground up, and it was clawing and scratching our way. I always say that for every success, there’s 10,000 failures. It’s really fighting the good fight over all these years, being able to really believe in yourself. I’m not going to lie: I think being a female in the industry, ironically, is a challenge. There aren’t too many, so really being able to hone in on that, that we are female-founded, that I am a female designing for females, has been an advantage to the design process and connecting to all these women.

Sally LaPointe, Jessel Taank

What’s the best piece of advice someone’s given you?  
Sarah once told me, “It’s not about totally reinventing the wheel. It’s about good design.” That’s also a the magic of my product. Because I’m a female, I know what it is like to be in the dressing room. I know what it feels like to walk out your door. I know what it feels like to be in clothing and feel the certain things that you feel as a woman. So keeping it simple in a way, what I do is statements made simple. It’s not overcomplicated. It’s not constrictive. I pay a lot of close attention to putting stretch into fabrics, bias cut, and truly keeping it simple. It doesn’t have to be something over-thought, and it really lies in the design.

LAPOINTE Fall 2023

Lapointe has a huge organic celeb following! Why do stars gravitate so much to LAPOINTE, from your perspective?
I’ve thought about that too, and it truly goes back to the product. The celebs have all come to me because they want to wear the pieces. I have never paid a single one of them. I can say that! It speaks back to the product and the fact that they want to wear it, and then when they do wear it, they feel really good. Then they’re return clients or customers, you could say, and it’s more about their values and how they feel—rather than saying “This demographic sheet X, age X to X.” That’s why I feel I’ve been able to do such a range of sizes, ages, and different professions. That is something that we’re really proud of. It just goes back to speaking to the product.

Your campaign last year with Oprah was stunning—and went super viral! How did that collaboration come together?
She has been wearing our pieces for a few years, and I did a custom suit for her back in 2021 during COVID-19. She had me to her house to do the fitting, and afterwards, she was like,  “Would you like to sit on my terrace and chat?” We ended up chatting for probably 45 minutes or an hour. During that chat, she was like, “How did you get your start?” I told her how I was a self-taught female, and how it had challenges. I’ll never forget, but she was like, “So, the power of never giving up,” and it stuck with me. When I was thinking about how to present the collection last season, I wanted to do something completely different. I decided to just ask her if she would be my muse, because she just epitomizes who my woman is to the T. And she said yes!

Your new collection is hitting the runway soon. What are some major moments we should look out for?
It’s a really good one. It’s funny, too, because my relationship with Sarah…she sometimes needs to keep me in the box for design. But during runway collections, she really lets me do my thing. I can really push every single look to the best. Even last night, I was cutting a crazy piece of fabric on the ground, adding it to one of the last finale looks. The color palette is really, really strong, and a lot of texture. A lot of really interesting textures that we’re going to show, which I’m super excited about. I also like keeping everything very edited—so there’s only 27 looks right now. I think there’s such strength in being able to edit yourself and just show the best of the best. So, each one is going to be a “Wow” look. There’s nothing in between.

Your big group finale walks are a brand signature at Fashion Week. How did that start—and do the models have as much fun as it seems on the runway?
I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that question. So, good for you! That’s really cool to think about, because I talk a lot about my fine art background. At a very young age, I was a fine artist, painter, and I was classically trained on oil paints, so I still approach every single collection like a painting. It’s just my training. I started bringing them all out at once, because for me, it was like showing my complete painting. It’s not about an individual look. It really is about the entire story, the entire feel. It started just getting a lot of traction, and we started calling it “Lapointe army,” which I think speaks back to the brand being a strong, female kind of thing. It’s a little bit of that, and the girls love it. I can’t speak more about these models. They are the sweetest girls, and they have so much fun! Afterwards, some of them are crying. The last Fall [2024] show with the school bus, we all did our finale, and when we came backstage they were hugging me and they all started going, “Sally, Sally, Sally!” It is that fun. They get so amped and feel so good in the looks, and they’re just the sweetest. They bring so much energy, and they’re amazing.

LAPOINTE Fall 2024

What are your future moves & plans for the brand as you celebrate 15 years—and look towards what’s next?
We’ve been really careful on growing organically. We’ve never wanted to jump into something just to do it. The past 15 years has really been about perfecting the product, perfecting the brand vision and the DNA, and like now we can start to think about what that means next in terms of different categories. I get a little outside of the box. I don’t know if it’s going to be a traditional shoe or traditional bag, but thinking about expanding in new, interesting ways that really feed back to our customer. We’re a little bit more international and global, and becoming more of a household name. Mostly right now, we are [in the] US, and we’re starting to go a little more international, but that would probably be in the next few years.

LAPOINTE Fall 2023

How does it feel to be a household name?
It’s odd. Sometimes it pops up in weird ways that just surprise me, but it makes me happy. I’m rather humble, and when somebody points that out, I don’t even really realize it, in a way. I’ve had so many people come up. I do a lot of critiquing at FIT, and working with the students and hearing them say things like, “Oh my gosh, you’ve been my superhero since high school,” or “I have a mood board of all your looks in my room to inspire me.” Those are the types of moments where I can be like, “Wow, that’s really cool,” and it makes me happy.

Do you have any fun plans after your 15th anniversary show?> are you doing after the show? Any fun plans?
I’m so nervous, so I don’t eat. I love a good meal after [a show]. Honestly, I have my favorite local bar. They all know me. I’ve been hitting that bar after every one of my runway shows for 15 years—it’s just casual food and a pub.

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all the latest fashion news and juicy industry gossip.

You can view the original article HERE.