Last year, The New York Times, posted about VPL (visible panty line), a lingerie line that prides itself as inner and outer wear. The store opened with decor embracing your inner ballerina (pictures on this page).Below is The New York Times post, At VPL, Wispy Clothes for Your Inner Ballerina.
"MOST new Manhattan boutiques tend to be pigeonhole-able into one of two categories. One of two decorative objects will be present, either literally or in spirit, which will harmonize all other aesthetic notes: (1.) stuffed white peacocks; or (2.) vintage leather medicine balls.
The new VPL boutique hurls itself with great gusto and literal vintage medicine balls into the leather medicine-ball category. The shop is chockablock with vintage gymnasia: wooden hand weights, unpainted bowling pins, a leather pommel horse you’d imagine Lucille Ball falling off of, and other cruel fitness paraphernalia from the time before yoga mats.
The lighting casts a yellowy hue; Smokey Robinson and Al Green radiate at a mature volume out of wooden speakers. I don’t know if it was just the first day the heat had kicked on and the radiators were overexcited, or if it was all part of creating an atmosphere of humid athleticism — but it was mighty warm in there.
Victoria Beckham wears VPL in a magazine photoshoot (above).
VPL began as a joke. (It’s an acronym for 'visible panty line.') The designer Victoria Bartlett cut her fashion teeth by deconstructing vintage undergarments. These items (now relegated to the VPL2 line) are weightless little mash-ups, arranged on the racks in gradational colors: paneled tap pants lifted from the 1930s in color triads of cobweb-thin cotton and rayon. The building blocks of early brassieres — elasticized mesh, felted straps — are used to create post-Madonna, neo-girdle tank-tunics ($175). Orange suspender elastics are employed to create a safety bra for young hall monitors in training ($85).
I couldn’t figure out if it was overperforming underwear or underperforming outerwear. A wall of black-and-white photos by Mark Borthwick features decidedly normal-bodied girls leaning against windowsills in these clever underthings. But they are clearly indoors, having a private moment. The VPL print ads show models wearing the same underensembles, only with socks and little platform boots, as if they are about to skip outside and play a Benny Hill-inspired version of Rollerball. 
Popular VPL top (above).
One senses from other racks that Ms. Bartlett is dead-serious about being seen as a respected designer, even without her underpants (snicker). To this end, she has aligned herself with artists she wants in her cultural thought balloon. For instance, the artist Orly Genger, who crochets vast quantities of rope, has created chain-and-rope chokers ($202) and thick wrist-doughnuts that are a cool new take on the paracord survival bracelet. (Good luck untying it to rappel to safety, but you’d probably be able to take out a potential assailant if you threw it hard enough.)...."
For the complete article, click on At VPL, Wispy Clothes for Your Inner Ballerina. VPL Store images (top two) by Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times.
