Exclusive Interview with Pia Baroncini, the Creative Director of LPA, as seen on REVOLVE
Interviewed by Sienna Arrobio
Sienna: Can you introduce LPA the label, what it means to you, and expand on how you came to know this was your path?
Pia: I went to Parsons School of Design in New York, studying design and management there. Where I produced editorials for magazines and casted music videos (including a bunch for Beyoncé). Then I started doing PR where I was asked to work for Reformation (when there were only 8 employees, because the brand had just started). I started there doing in-house PR, styling photoshoots, opening stores and eventually earned the title of ‘Brand Manager’ there.
Over the course of working there, I grew to know the customer (and also was the customer) so Revolve asked me to start designing and sit in on design meetings. Where I evolved to a full-time designer there.
In later years, I was approached by Zara to move and work in Spain as their in-house designer. However, before accepting that position, the head of marketing at REVOLVE asked to meet with me and offered me the opportunity to create my own brand.
Sienna: What were the risks and rewards when you were offered the opportunity to create your own brand?
Pia: REVOLVE was and still is one of the biggest online retailers, so them having access to the fashion, trend, and sales analytics on the brands that they carried, prepped them for wanting to create their own in-house brands. When I was approached, it seemed like the logical decision to shift my career to become the Creative Director of LPA under them.
Sienna: How did you cultivate Brand Identity?
Pia: When the brand launched it was very different and the first of its kind, because I was young and single, and the brand emulated that cool-girl chic aesthetic. Now there are endless cool and young brands for women, (and thank God for that!) but the market was a lot smaller 9 years ago, so LPA gained a lot of traction and relatability.
The storyboard and inspiration for the brand was all about being a single hot girl and served as a cumulation of me living in New York in the early 2000s before Instagram; coupled with growing up in California hanging out with California skateboarders and surf culture. The brand was very much my own, creating clothes that drew both the effortless cool of graffiti writers and artists paired with a sexier feminine look. (I grew up loving Dulce and Gabbana).
So, the brand is identifiable by pieces that could be both tom-boy and elevated feminine.
“The brand was very much my own, creating clothes that drew both the effortless cool of graffiti writers and artists paired with a sexier feminine look.”
Sienna: Tell me about the most memorable moments for you and the brands evolution and what it means to you.
Pia: There were insane launch parties where Virgil showed up and Diplo DJ’d just because he was there. We did international events in Paris and the coolest stuff, but now the market is very oversaturated and I’m a married mother of two kids, so the brand has shifted more to where I’m at in my life right now.
What it means to me is this funny representation of the growth from being a single woman in her 20s to a married mother in her 30s, who still wants to be sexy and wear, my husband, Davide’s clothes to express that masculine side. So, the clothes are more sophisticated and elevated to match my life.
What I will say that’s very interesting is that LPA looks better than it’s ever looked and is selling better than it’s ever sold and there still are times when I’ll design something, and my buyers will say “That’s so LPA!”. So, I’m amazed that after 10 years the brand still has that consistent brand identity. It’s made me so proud that I’ve been delivering consistent and relatable product, now into my late 30s.
“The brand has shifted more to where I’m at in my life right now.”
Sienna: What skills do you think are necessary to be successful in this industry?
Pia: What makes an influencer successful is someone who’s truly authentic to themselves and who finds a niche that they fill. For example, Wishbone Kitchen invented being a Chef in the Hamptons and Alix Earle, creator of Hot Mess, was a funny and relatable college girl who has turned her podcast into a multimillion-dollar brand. I think these girls are very specifically them and that this is the only way to be a successful influencer because there are millions of people online who look the same, so it’s hard and intimidating.
Being yourself is extremely important, it’s like watching a reality tv show. For example, people who follow me and who have been following me for a while watched my life evolve from a single girl to me now. Something I think people take for granted is, if you gain success in influencing you become a business and you need to understand how to leverage that to have a long-standing career, which manifests itself in starting a company, smart partnerships or a podcast.
I didn’t ever want to be an influencer, I had people follow me because I was talking about my career and about fashion, then I started getting these kinds of jobs. This has now evolved, is me having a team who tells me how to do ‘influencer stuff’.
Sienna: How do you strike a balance between creative expression and freedom while creating profitable pieces?
Pia: Brands often start with so much money and no creative vision or idea for what to do. This was not the world I came to know and experience, so my creative process is to go to the office and hammer out an entire collection in three hours, because I have a very specific point of view and vision for the brand. Like “Oh I want to wear that, so let’s make it like this.”
For example, everything Davide makes for this brand Ghiaia Cashmere was inspired by some piece in his archive that he’s had for ten years. There is no sitting down and draping things or a formal process. Instead, both of our creative processes are very freeing, allowing us to create pieces for people who enjoy the way we dress and what we find chic and timeless.
There is no re-invention every season because the brands (LPA and Ghiaia) are very authentic to the people that run them.
Sienna: Tell us about where you are now with the brand, its future trajectory and what you have in the works.
Pia: LPA has a very incredible core following of both LPA and REVOLVE customers, so I see there’s more longevity in LPA than I had ever imagined there to be.
Ghiaia and Baronchini Import & Co. (a Sicilian home wear and food brand) will be multi-generational heritage brands. Our goal, because people are so invested in us, our lifestyle, and our home, is to create physical spaces that feel like they are in our home, like Davide’s flagship Ghiaia Cashmere location in San Marino, CA. These family-run brands will open more physical locations, so wherever there’s a Ghiaia there will be Bar Baronchini next door, like a restaurant and bodega-to-go element, where everything that you eat and eat on will be available for purchase.
“The internet f*cking sucks because it's an open forum of critique, so you have to view the criticism and hate you receive as an expense, otherwise you will lose your mind.”
- Pia
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own, and may not reflect the opinions of N/A Magazine. Posted October 4th 2024.
Edited by Charlotte Plaskwa