The girl from Goff's Oak in Hertfordshire has certainly come a long way since her early declaration that she wanted to be as famous as Daz Automatic. This year is proving to be something of a milestone for Victoria Beckham. Thirty years after the Spice Girls formed and twenty-five after she married footballer David, the industrious mother of four is entering her sixth decade in a rather triumphant manner.
Her eponymous fashion label - a healthy 16-year-old, even made a profit. In 2022, revenues rose 44 percent to £58.8 million, which isn't bad for someone who thought it was a good idea to collaborate with songwriter Dane Bowers when leaving the Spice Girls.
Out of her mind? Perhaps, but Beckham has always admirably charted her own course, making it easy for some to sneer. But when you look at her back catalogue, you can't deny her Midas touch. She has resolutely entertained us since she described her metier as Posh, the one who pointed, with a poetic face in a chic little black Gucci dress (Tom Ford era).
Last year's Netflix documentary, ostensibly David's project, was difficult to watch without getting misty-eyed about these titans of British popular culture, who worked hard and dressed harder; who is every life move and outfit we've thought about and obsessed over, mocked and teased but ultimately adored.
Beckham, of course, provided the best moments, but it was David's statement about being from a working-class background that created the series' viral meme moment. Once an entrepreneur, you can now buy slogan T-shirts from her shop, emblazoned with both 'David's Wife' and, of course, 'My Dad Had a Rolls-Royce' (yours for a not-too-scary £110 at Victoria Beckham. com).
Her sense of humor has never stayed far above the surface and there has always been the feeling that there is a wink behind everything she does. The blonde LA Posh - resplendent in Barbie pink (years before Margot Robbie slid down her plastic slide) Roland Mouret with matching Hermès Birkin bag (rumor has it she has over 100 of the haute It bags which can be worth £2 his million) was pure gossip.
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At that time, her stock in terms of fashion was low. The appearance of the Baden-Baden Wag era left a dazzling mark on the industry; Her first attempts to establish herself as a style force came via licensed collaborations that bordered on clingy diamond jeans from Rock and Republic, oversized sunglasses and tantalizing celebrity perfumes. But with her keen sense of knowledge, she understood more about the fashion industry than she may have realized at the time.
While she may have given up some of her pop star gear (there are rumors of a Spice Girls reunion later this year, but details are scarce so far), she has taken to heart the lesson of Madonna and others - that constant reinvention is the is the key to longevity.
The Beckham era has thankfully gone from the plucky best of Hertfordshire to Old Trafford, from dashing boho in Madrid to Hollywood gloss in LA. Now happily leaning somewhere between West London, legging-clad mum, casual country women in the Cotswolds and Miami flash, she's nothing if not versatile (she's even taken to wearing flats).
Her first step to clearing the terraces was a clever collaboration with Marc Jacobs, sending herself upstairs by sitting in one of his tote bags in a campaign photo by Juergen Teller. It was a stroke of genius, a baptism of cool. When she launched her label in 2008 - from hair back to brunette - it was almost an act of contrition. She humbly presented ten dresses to small groups of fashion journalists at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The editors came with disarming news; they liked what they saw.
From the beginning, the line had accusations of copycat designs. Beckham was a demonstrative fan of Roland Mouret - then king of the bodycon Galaxy dress. There were murmurs that he was behind the dresses, which followed a similar aesthetic. In reality, Mouret was not involved, but Beckham had hired two women from his studio. In 2016 she said: "I am very grateful to Roland. Without him I wouldn't have met Mel and Tracy, but he never had anything to do with the collections. I knew what everyone was thinking and what the whispers were. Of course I knew that."
Beckham's attitude towards the fashion press has always been open. She's not a snob. Her small presentations in New York slowly grew into full shows with the Beckham clan sitting in the front row. Before each film, she organized (and still does) previews where journalists with tight deadlines were talked through the collection by Beckham himself, often one on one.
Her skill is understanding how much family to give versus the details of the collection. In the beginning, there was often a flash from her iPhone with photos from their summer vacation, always just enough to meet the demands of news agencies after a line. She made sure to remember you season after season, with comments about a new haircut or a new shoe.
When I interviewed her at her home in Holland Park, she was warm and welcoming, but as with everything Beckham has led, there is always a sense of yes but no. Are you being played? I walked into the kitchen to VB and her, where PR sat with a mug of tea each, one named V, the other B. She gracefully ate a bowl of pomegranate seeds while we talked, studiously ignoring a tin full of pastry cream until Harper walked in came. after a piano lesson to catch a couple. Her mother waved a banana at her fruitlessly. There was just enough juice to make a good piece - the appearance that this was just a normal family on a weekday afternoon, except that Beckham was flying to Ethiopia with the UN later that day.
By the time she opened her three-storey Dover Street Store in 2014 - designed by Farshid Moussavi with Damien Hirst in the personal shopping precinct - she had cemented her role at the heart of the fashion industry, winning two British Fashion Awards for best brand (in 2011 and 2014). She might have stumbled out of the opening party, but everyone loved her for it. Her confidence led her to take her show to London Fashion Week before moving back to Paris after the pandemic, where she settled in Karl Lagerfeld's opulent old mansion on the Left Bank.
Although the company has historically been in the red, its recent business plan is winning; back to one collection at a discounted price alongside her successful beauty off-shoot with Ms B's TikTok tutorial videos. One thing that has never diminished is that the central focus shifts away from the founder - who is involved at all levels.
Her most recent show in Paris was a perfect confirmation of her tenacity in the pursuit of pure fabulous glamor - would a Peta invasion or an ugly black medi boot (the result of a broken foot in a gym injury) stop Beckham from strutting her entire catwalk -bow to take? That would very much not be the case.
Always egalitarian, her first high street collaboration with Mango is sure to sell out next week. Last year she said in French Vogue: "When I look at big houses, I get stars in my eyes. Creating a big house is my dream. I won't mention any, at the risk of sounding arrogant, but I would like to emphasize as humbly as possible that I have many ambitions."
There is a palpable sense that at 50, Beckham is just hitting his stride.
