Longtime Charlotte clothing store named by New York Times as one of the best in US
A Charlotte high-end luxury boutique has grabbed national attention for its “designer clothes for Southern belles.”
Capitol on Sharon Road in SouthPark landed on the New York Times “50 Best Clothing Stores in America” list that was released Thursday. Owner Laura Vinroot Poole is called “a fashion interpreter.”
Poole translates “designs from European and American luxury labels for customers who, say, prefer Celine dresses in pink or florals because no one in Charlotte wears black on a 95-degree day with 85-percent humidity,” the Times stated.
Poole could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
This is not the first time the 27-year-old store has been cast into the national spotlight. Poole has earned an international reputation as a fashion style-setter, and her store has been mentioned in fashion magazines from Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar.
Capitol carries high-end designers such as Carolina Herrera, Lily Eve and Valentino, as well as jewelry by Marie-Helene de Taillac and Irene Neuwirth. Prices range from a Flore Flore tank top for $63 to a Huishan Zhang gown for $4,795, and jewelry by Bent Neale for $25,850, according to Capitol’s website.
No other stores in North Carolina made the (fashion) cut. The only one in South Carolina was Ben Silver in Charleston.
About Capitol boutique and Laura Vinroot Poole
Poole is the daughter of former Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot, and her mother, Judy, was an educator. She grew up in Eastover as the middle of three children. She was 25 when she opened Capitol in 1998.
While living in Massachusetts and attending Phillips Academy in Andover after middle school, she grew defensive of the South’s stereotypes, Poole previously told The Charlotte Observer.
It became her calling “to force others to see Charlotte, and by extension the South, as a place of deep-seated style and sophistication.”
She returned to Charlotte after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill and getting married. She said she saw a “big hole in the market for women like (my) mom: a place to buy the world’s best fashion without leaving Charlotte.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 1:03 PM.
