Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, VPL gotta VPL. Even as she was describing pre-fall as a new experiment with volume, Victoria Bartlett was showing off a recent lookbook for which a model had been coaxed to contort into yoga s most om-breaking asanas. The athleticism at the core of the brand is still there. But that s not to say this collection wasn t a departure, or that it wasn t a welcome one. Drape has always been a key element in Bartlett s arsenal, but here silhouettes were positively loose. That felt fresh. So did new experiments with lamination, which led the way to crinkly "cracked and fractured" elements, in Bartlett s words. But lest it all sound too damningly comfortable—it surely is, but no tarring this line with the negatives of that brush—consider the mind-bending puzzle presented by a standout sweater, striated like a geode, that s woven on Japanese looms as a seamless tube. You don t so much wear it, as it orbits you.
