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story by Seth Friedermann
photos by Ned & Aya Rosen
Sally LaPointe‘s growth as a designer has been a joy to watch. Season after season she’s produced increasingly refined and intricate work that expresses her vision and showcases her skills. One definitely gets a feeling of a designer driven by a need to find a way to express a deeply held ideal. She’s seeking a balance in something greater than just clothing. “I kind of wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do the same sort of architectural modern designs that I have been doing the past couple of seasons, but doing them in more of a feminine way. I loosened up a little bit.”
Her Spring 2012 collection was a confident stride in that direction. Although the collection was inspired by ruins and fading antiquity, this was no dour traipse of a parade of doomed women from an Edgar Allan Poe tale. Ms. LaPointe’s collection began as a journey in fog and dimness, but at the end the reemergence of strength and vitality was unmistakable.
Beautiful soft ultrasuede and silks flowed in elegant waves around the curved runway. Ms. LaPointe has a precise touch when it comes to knowing how and where to control her fabrics and where to let them run. Success as a designer equals the heady tonic of more money for better fabrics, and this was certainly true for this collection. A floral print suggested fading and peeling Waverly wallpaper. Soft and subtle leathers hung loosely from shoulders. And most enjoyably, a brilliant peridot green silk shantung announced the arrival of spring and put the whole collection on a positive and hopeful footing. Sally La Pointe is certainly a designer with a complete vision to express and the greatest joy is her story is barely out of the first chapter.
