How LaPointe Built a Fashion Brand on Statement Dressing Made Easy, With Help From Lady Gaga

On Sunday afternoon, New York-based luxury label LaPointe is kicking off its 15th anniversary year with a high energy runway show of the label’s fall 2025 collection.

Creative director and cofounder Sally LaPointe and chief executive officer and cofounder Sarah Adelson built the business from the ground up, quite literally on the floor of their shared TriBeCa loft in 2010 after meeting at Rhode Island School of Design.

Following its debut September 2010 runway show, the brand garnered the attention of Lady Gaga, who first wore the label’s black corseted spring 2011 dress to the International Consumer Electronics Show., and has worn it many times since. The collection was picked up by Bergdorf Goodman three years after launch, became well-known for its signature look of “statement made easy,” including monochrome dressing with rich textures, feathers and frills, and expanded into resort and pre-fall in 2014.

Since then, the label has continued to evolve and grow, launching its own e-commerce; picking up more retail accounts including Moda Operandi, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, The Conservatory, Intermix, Kirna Zabête, Harrods and more; rebranding from Sally LaPointe to LaPointe and dressing tons of A-listers including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez (who last week wore the label’s pre-fall 2025 plunging red gown and fur coat to Clive Davis’ Pre-Grammy Gala).

Regarding the size of the business, LaPointe and Adelson declined to comment on exact numbers, but both noted it is growing 30 to 40 percent year-over-year. The company, located on Howard Street in SoHo, has 24 employees across multiple departments, including industry veteran Reese Pozgay, formerly of Revlon and Marc Jacobs International, who was appointed vice president of marketing last March.

“It’s crazy,” LaPointe said of her feelings entering the brand’s milestone anniversary year during an exclusive interview with WWD. “Our journey has not been the norm. We’ve always put all the emphasis on the product; it’s never been about anything other than that. I’ve never been the ‘industry darling,’ so being able to get where we are with a very healthy business, not a fake one; dressing all of the talent we dress, and honestly, to still be in business and friends, I feel proud.”

Adelson, who handles the business side to LaPointe’s creative, added that while thinking of strategies for the year ahead, they have been reminiscing about where they started, as both business partners and best friends.

“We started the company together in our apartment. Not only were we living together and working together, but our bedrooms were behind curtains, and our desks were in the main space so we could collaborate in the middle,” she said.

“It’s nothing but pride and excitement going into this year and has prompted a lot of conversation between us. We’re just kind of like, “wow,” and it’s a therapy session,” she said.

Working Together to Overcome Challenges

LaPointe said they do not have regretful decisions because, “to get anywhere really great, there has to be successes and failures.”

“I always tell people, for every success you see, there’s 10,000 failures behind it. You have to go through those types of things to get here, they’re are part of the whole journey. I think too, being fearless and doing things outside of the box. Even if it was maybe not right, I’m still glad that we were able to have the confidence to make decisions that we felt were right for us, not just because it’s what “you’re supposed to do,” she said.

Adelson added that she believes they do a good job of taking from those learnings, moving on rather than regretting any decision and staying true to their vision amid outside voices, which speaks to the brand’s ability to consistently uphold its bold DNA over the last 15 years.

At the root of their success is their working relationship and friendship, a rarity in the industry. “Sally’s strengths are my weaknesses, and my strengths are her weaknesses,” Adelson said.

They consistently check in with one another in order to “maintain the magic of what people come to the brand for — to be inspired — so we’re consistently maintaining that balance,” LaPointe said. It’s guided by their ability to easily collaborate with one another, with trust being a key factor.

“It’s amazing, because Sarah is like, “fly little butterfly.” She lets me go because when I bring it all back to the [office], I share my ideas and run it by her first and only,” LaPointe said of her design process. “Then she looks and approves, but she lets me go there. It’s very special.”

“Even if there’s something Sally want to do, and I don’t 100 percent see the final vision, I trust it and vice versa. While we don’t get to work together as much as we used to, there’s magic in when we do get to create products or strategies together,” Adelson said.

“I could never do it by myself, I don’t know how other people do, but I think the strength really is that it’s the both of us,” LaPointe said.

The LaPointe Look

Since the inception of the label, LaPointe and Adelson have been mainstays of New York fashion, with almost 80 percent of production in New York. Their customer and product categories have increasingly expanded to eight collections a year, bridal and eyewear.

During the 2020 pandemic, the e-commerce launch and rebrand from Sally LaPointe to LaPointe also saw the brand start to pivot to a wider range of outfit completers that didn’t sacrifice the well-known, colorful, cool and bold LaPointe look.

“Around [the COVID-19 pandemic], I remember people telling me, “You have to be louder; just go, go, go.” I think I was holding back a little, and during that time the world was going through such crazy things, as I was in my life. It opened up the feeling of not caring what people think or what the rules are. I want to do what’s right for our company, what’s right for Sarah and I. Once those doors opened, it was like unleashing the beast — the energy and the message — and people just connected to it. Not for the first time, but on a real level,” LaPointe said.

The initial LaPointe customer is still the same customer today.

“In the beginning, we probably weren’t even thinking about that end customer. It was more of Sally having a vision that we both really believed in. I think it’s more that we had a set destination for the customer, but I think the women that wear it embody and marry those values,” Adelson said. That vision is rooted in the values they built into the company: empowerment, confidence and being unapologetically yourself.”

“That also explains a lot about our wide range of customers,” LaPointe added. “We always say its about her values, so it doesn’t matter what she looks like, who she is or what she does. That’s how we’ve been able to dress such a range in every category. We always talk about how it’s her mentality, and I feel like that comes originally from the beginning of Sarah and I working together. It’s who we are.”

These customers come to LaPointe for what the duo says they do best: statement, made easy. She isn’t coming to the brand for a classic black trouser, but rather a black satin belted pant or faux leather utility jogger — something with a bit of oomph, like an ostrich-trimmed cape and feather-adorned gown for evening, or a denim trenchcoat with shearling trims for day, to name a few.

The first iconic style LaPointe she can remember is the brand’s signature cashmere turtleneck with fur-adorned sleeves.

“I slapped the fur on the arms, it walked the runway and then everybody wore it — Leandra Medine, Lady Gaga, etc,” LaPointe said of the style on the fall 2014 runway where she first introduced knitwear. “It’s funny, because even today, we’re still doing that same thing. It’s sweaters with feathers, it’s a denim trench with Mongolian. It’s interesting to think that it’s upheld that long.”

The Celebrity Effect

LaPointe said from Day One, the brand has been dressing celebrities left and right.

It all started after the brand’s first runway show in September 2010 when the designer received a late night call about a dress inquiry from Lady GaGa, who has made multiple appearances in the label since the beginning 2011, including a custom metallic ruffle gown for her “Judas” music video.

Since then, the brand has also dressed Katy Perry, former First Lady Jill Biden, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Sharon Stone, Meghan Trainor (who last fall donned a custom bright blue embellished number for “The Timeless Tour”) and many, many more.

Taking it a step further, the brand tapped Oprah Winfrey, who has periodically worn LaPointe over the years, as the muse and face of the brand’s easy-to-wear, glamorous and confident spring 2025 collection. During a preview of the collection with WWD, Lapointe said, “Winfrey is ultimately the epitome of who my woman is. Picking her, too, wasn’t out of the blue. She’s the definition of empowered female, and she likes to be put together, but not overdone. It was a seamless, easy fit.”

“The main reason I said yes was because of how warm and open Sally was when I first met her. She is a woman in power, empowering other women through her work, her artistry and her clothes — and I wanted to support that,” Winfrey said in a statement.

A Celebratory Year

On Sunday, the LaPointe fall 2025 runway collection will debut at the official National Basketball Players Association practice space, directly on the court, in Midtown Manhattan.

“I started thinking about the word endurance. It’s very synonymous with sport, so I started looking into the meaning of that. Having agility and being able to withstand hardships and perfecting your craft over time,” LaPointe said of the collection and show location’s tie between sport and fashion. “It felt right for the 15th anniversary and speaking back to how we go there. There’s also such a beautiful thing happening right now between fashion and sport, so really amping that up.”

Guests invited to the show include those who have supported the brand over the last 15 years. “I really want it to be a celebration of all the people that have been around,” LaPoint added, noting the show will also feature a dance performance by Supa Girlz and high-energy soundtrack by longtime collaborator Javier Peral.

The brand plans to celebrate its milestone anniversary throughout the year, with “fun product throwbacks” in the works. One might just be a new take on the crystallized sweatsuit seen on Gigi Hadid in 2017, LaPointe hinted, among others.

The Next Chapter

Speaking to what’s next, LaPointe and Adelson agreed that they, “want to do things when it feels right.”

“How we approach [new categories] is when we feel good about something, then it’s on to the next. E-commerce is still growing so much, and there’s so much potential there. I think that’s our big concentration right now, and the categories will come. There’s so much strength right now in the ready-to-wear and the product, and we feel good about that,” Adelson added.

And while the brand does not have immediate plans to open their first retail store, “It’s always in the back of my mind, I think it’s definitely on the horizon,” Adelson said. “Now that we’ve tested the waters and we have a really, really strong customer base, we’re in that process of getting ready for it.”