Sally LaPointe, creative director of her eponymous ready-to-wear label, typically stages a presentation or runway show during New York Fashion Week to debut her latest collection. But on the first day of this month’s Fashion Week, the designer announced via Instagram that she “decided not to do a runway and do something totally different.”
As Fashionista reports, that something, it turned out, was a lookbook starring none other than Oprah Winfrey.
Naming the former talk show host and entrepreneur “the muse,” LaPointe recounted the story of how she met Winfrey in an Instagram post on Thursday. “I thought to myself, Oprah. It has to be Oprah. When I sat my team down and told them my idea, they had sort of thought that I lost my mind, but I said guys, please trust me. For whatever reason I have a feeling inside of my gut that she will say yes,” the designer wrote. It turns out, that gut feeling was right.
Of course, legendary interviewer Winfrey approached the project as she would any of her others: “She had me to her house for a fitting and after the fitting, she sat me down on her terrace to have a conversation,” wrote LaPointe. “It was there that she asked me how I got my start in my career. I told her being a self-taught female entrepreneur in such a competitive industry has certainly had its challenges, but that 10 years later somehow I was still going. I’ll never forget what she said to me, she simply said, ‘The power of never giving up.'”
LaPointe carried that statement with her and made it the theme behind her Spring 2025 collection (which is already available for pre-order). Throughout the lookbook, Winfrey models denim and snakeskin-patterned trenches, blazers and gowns covered in the brand’s signature fluffy feathers and an array of sparkly skirts and blouses.
“I view Oprah as my North Star,” said LaPointe in a press release shared with Fashionista. “She epitomizes who the LaPointe woman is in every way: a strong, courageous individual who dresses for herself and no one else…In the short time we spent together, she instilled in me this notion of ‘Never giving up and being true to yourself’ that stuck, and I hope will resonate with our audience around this collection.”
As for why and how Winfrey ended up agreeing to star in the lookbook, she said, “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.”
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Photo Credit: Maxim Elramsisy / Shutterstock.com