‘Fashion truck’ brings dance apparel business to valley
Josephine Lee has been selling dance clothes with her mother, Grace, since she was a teenager. She now owns her own dance apparel store in Orange County, and many of her customers are from right here in the valley.
“In palm springs there’s a huge dance community, but there are no dance stores. So we noticed there are a lot of people from Palm Springs that drive two hours plus to my store to get dance supplies,” Lee said.
Lee saw a need and filled it, literally. She packed boxes of leotards, leg warmers and of course dance shoes in a van and started making appointments with dance studios. She calls her mobile business “The Pointe Shop.”
“It’s a fashion truck, and I just like to take all my clothing and all my shoes out to the studio so they can have everything they can need there,” Lee said.
Lee will set up shop at the Desert Dance Academy the last Sunday of every month. Dancers can come in and get custom fittings for pointe shoes and other items.
“That’s my favorite thing about my job is to be able to fit a dancer in her very first pointe shoes. Because it’s that magical moment of going to that next level of ballet and feel like a professional and feel like a real dancer,” Lee said.
Pointe shoes especially need to be professionally fit. This prevents injuries and helps you dance better. Lee hopes her start-up business will continue to be on-point with aspiring desert dancers.
You can find more information about The Pointe Shop and Josephine Lee at www.thepointeshop.com.
