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subscribe to style file blog via RSSVPL’s First Store To Bow This Week
November 1, 2010 2:00 pm
Soho has been a shopping destination for so long, it hardly seems worth remarking that a new corner of the neighborhood has opened its arms to fashion. Nevertheless, something does seem to be afoot on the nabe’s downtown edge. Agnès B. is due to open soon on Howard Street. Just around the block on Grand Street, Alexander Wang is taking over the old Yohji space. And now Victoria Bartlett has opened her first-ever VPL store at the junction of Mercer and Howard. “So-Soho,” Bartlett suggests visitors call the area, tongue planted gently in cheek. There’s certainly nothing mediocre about her boutique, which she’s kitted out with vintage gym gear (gymnastic rings, a pommel horse, etc.) and filled with clothes from her main line and VPL Two collections, as well as a selection of the collaborative jewelry she shows on the VPL runway. “I didn’t want to do either the cliché white-on-white fashion store, or the filled-to-bursting boutique,” Bartlett said. “I just wanted the space to feel really VPL, an agglomeration of all my influences.” To wit, Bauhaus-inspired color-blocking here (reminiscent of her signature color-blocked underthings), and a model of a human spine there (homage to Bartlett’s fascination with human anatomy). Bartlett will be celebrating the store opening with a party this Thursday, by which point, the Mark Borthwick portraits of people wearing VPL will be up on the walls. “Lo-so? Do-so?” Bartlett continued, still brainstorming. “Eh,” she said, finally. “Just call it Soho.”
VPL opens Friday at 5 Mercer St., NYC, (646) 912-6142, store@vplnyc.com.
tags: Victoria Bartlett, VPL
