Now in his forties, John Bartlett is on a serious comeback trail, describing the clothes at his Bryant Park presentation as "more formal, with a focus on tailoring." Another big influence for the designer this season was the in-store boutique he ll be opening in Bergdorf Goodman this fall, which might account for the safety net of what he called "grown-up preppy."
His latest show was characterized by coats and jackets, with a definite leaning toward gray flannel. But one jacket in printed corduroy looked almost like devore, and another in salt-and-pepper had a country-squire feel. Bartlett has never played fashion purely by the numbers, so the same fearless impulse that led him to dedicate the collection to Irving Penn s "corner" portraits (the ones for which he pushed his famous subjects into existential little cul-de-sacs) was also responsible for a tantalizing waywardness amid all that tailoring. The white velvet pants with the stripes of Swarovski crystals; the flare of cardinal red in a striped sweater; the ultra-long, knitted rock-star scarves (also sighted at Burberry and Dior this season); and the pale-gray pinstriped jacket with the sprinkle of crystals, just like angel s dandruff, at a pocket and the corner of a hem—these were the touches that made one relish Bartlett s renaissance.
