Victoria Bartlett likes to center her shows around a theme. Last season, the stylist-turned-designer (recently nominated for a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award) created a cast of suffragettes and other feminist heroes. This time, her collection s title was Shape Shifting Dance, and she dropped the names Martha Graham and Vaslav Nijinsky as visual references. She practiced a few new moves with the introduction of a "younger, active" line, VPL II, which was styled into the show, along with lingerie.
As it happens, activewear is one of this week s emerging trends, and it s something that has consistently been part of Bartlett s design vocabulary. She worked it to her advantage in some of the stonger pieces from the main collection today—bandage swimsuits and color-block leggings reminiscent of the lounge-y body garments dancers in the corps de ballet wear in rehearsal.
Overall, though, the effort felt cluttered. Minimalism is not Bartlett s thing, but today there was a definite surfeit of layers and accessories. The addition of distracting sculptural showpieces, like the sets of shoulder extenders that looked like nothing so much as football gear, was a misstep.
