Victoria Beckham 2016 Fall RTW Collection

The look Victoria Beckham wore for her postshow bow spoke volumes: thick ribbed turtleneck, cropped pants, sneakers. It indicated a significant shift from her early preference for corseted dresses that hugged the body like a glove. Given that Beckham has always been her own muse, it makes sense that her personal sartorial journey is reflected on her runway, as it was on Sunday morning. “It’s an evolution of my personal style,” she said during a preview. “I have created wardrobe pieces that feel fresh and are what I think women want.”

At the same time, Beckham knows that her rapport with her customers is based on certain expectations, and it’s her challenge to come up with new ways of delivering the expected while incorporating her increasing relaxed sensibility. Here she did so deftly, in a number of ways. First, bold riffs on haberdashery fabrics in an earthy palette tempered the lineup’s feminine strokes.

Victoria Beckham’s ladies love a corset dress, so she niftied it up and dressed it down with a little whimsy on top slits or dangling strings under the bust and skirts with volume, sometimes via off-kilter panels for a touch of artiness. Corsets came as well in bicolor tops over pants, and knits that delivered the look with snappy sweater-girl ease. Also furthering the evolutionary process: Beckham’s favorite new silhouette, a lean dropped torso with a bubble skirt. Along with slipdresses cut to look a bit too big, these had a beguiling charm, some even girlishly awkward. A challenge to Beckham’s perfect-polish ladies  yes, but one worth posing.