Apr 12: Victoria has designed a new line of underwear and it's not what you think. This Victoria's secret is devoid of all pink ribbons, black lace and satin trim. British stylist Victoria Bartlett knows a thing or two about fashion. A graduate of the London College of Fashion and a celebrated name in the industry, Bartlett dressed Madonna for her "Fever" video, consulted Miuccia Prada for the Miu Miu shows, and has worked with the likes of Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. So it's no surprise that she would add underwear designer to her résumé with her new line, cheekily called VPL, as in Visible Panty Lines.
A creative process four years in the making, which Bartlett mainly attributes to an extensive amount of research, VPL is a collection of boy shorts, camisoles and bras inspired by vintage underwear of the '50s. While the pieces' muted color palettes and sheer, gauzy material certainly suggest they should be worn under clothes, don't call it lingerie.

"I consider it 'hybrid underwear,'" Bartlett said, describing VPL's mix of fashion and functionality at her space in Showroom Seven. "There's a subtly in it. It's sexy without being gratuitous."
Together with tailor Jeffrey Costello, Bartlett combined her stylish instincts with her fascination with industrial and medicinal elements to create VPL's therapy tanks, compression belts, body trainers and travel panties, to name a few. Although the sage green, red and nude-colored pieces certainly possess a surgical-like quality, details like delicate stitching, colorful stripes and buckles make them whimsical as well - and well worth wearing on their own. In fact, that is just how Bartlett wants girls to see VPL.
I can totally see Chloé [Sevigny] wearing the boy shorts with a little jacket, or I would love to see Monica Bellucci in something," Bartlett mused. "We're not placing the collection in the intimates section of boutiques," Bartlett said. "We want to emphasize that the sheers can be worn over solids by layering them together or even on their own." Small locker loops were added to some boy shorts to hold keys, and the travel panties even have tiny pockets to hold money, credit cards or lipstick.

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After poring over vintage lingerie, old medical books and photographs for nearly two years, Bartlett and Costello decided to use nylon, netting and mesh cotton for the majority of their collection, to ensure that the pieces are not only breathable, but supportive as well. As for the zigzag stitching, the pair looked far and wide for someone to mimic tiny sutures, and finally found a factory in Colombia that used to make surgical underwear and could create the flat-lock stitch that VPL needed.

And how about Bartlett's fascination with medical underwear? "I know, a lot of people think it's a little strange. But I'm fascinated with the colors, stitching and open weave of fabrics, not the macabre," Bartlett laughed.

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