See inside: Ladies of Lineage’s new Phillips Place showroom, with its designated “yes moment” space.

Why it matters: The wedding industry was one of several industries halted by COVID-19. Looking ahead, there’s still a lot of unknown. Even so, Ladies of Lineage powered through and was able to nearly triple its showroom size and open a new shop in one of the most expensive shopping centers in Charlotte.

• “The wedding dress was the one thing brides could control,” Duff-Cole said.
• After being initially closed during the shutdown, Ladies of Lineage was able to recoup its losses after a few months of being back open.

How it started: Duff-Cole opened a consignment wedding dress boutique called Lineage Bridal back in 2009. She treated it like an “oversized bridal closet,” where people could try on dresses and have their “yes to the dress” moment. Since then, it’s grown into a luxury bridal boutique; they no longer consign.

• She stuck to her vision of making brides feel special, and nurtured Lineage Bridal into Ladies of Lineage, a full-scale bridal boutique.
• In 2013, she opened her Dilworth location. They didn’t carry any big name labels at the time, and the price point was $900-$5,000.
• In 2018, Duff-Cole opened a second in Fort Mill, to bring in more designers and offer a different price point.

How it’s going: Ladies of Lineage outgrew its Dilworth space, so Duff-Cole and her team moved in Phillips Place this week. They added new designers, and were able to grow their price point again.

• Charlotte has become a bigger bridal shopping destination over the years because it’s easy to get to for customers and designers. Duff-Cole has landed major labels, like Sassi Holdford and Marchesa, that people used to have to travel larger cities to find.

The new space: The Phillips Place showroom features three glass-enclosed fitting room suites for brides to try on dresses with their entourage, 80+ feet of racks with gowns and an epic “yes moment” setup.

• The shop has an open layout, with dresses on display like pieces of art.

• The suites comfortably seat 4-5 guests, and the fitting room has a curtain for privacy and adjustable lighting so brides can see how the dresses look in various lighting settings.
• The “yes moment” space is reserved for the last 30 minutes of each person’s appointment. The bride can try on their favorite picks, and the Ladies of Lineage of team will pull out the accessories and veils.
• Sarah Catherine with SC Collective designer the space, and Jason Mulholland with Spectrum Builders led construction.

The dresses: In store, sample sizes run from sizes 6-22 and dresses are priced $2,000-$15,000.

• “Every body is a Lineage body,” Duff-Cole said. The dresses are intentionally interspersed instead of grouped by size so every bride gets to experience the whole store, instead of shopping in one specific section.

Details: The exact address for the Phillips Place showroom is 6809 Phillips Place Ct., Ste. B, next to Coplons. The Fort Mill location is in the Kingsley Town Center, 1329 Broadcloth St.

• You can make an appointments for either location here.

 Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Ladies of Lineage is no longer a consignment boutique.