Victoria Beckham loves a transformation. You don’t need us to recount her rebrands from Posh Spice to WAG, LA soccer mom to serious fashion designer. She’s currently in the midst of a subtle shift – not quite enjoying the drama of say, her Marc Jacobs 2008 campaign or her dramatic “pob” haircut during the same decade – but one that’s in line with her mission to double down on making her brand a serious success story.
The proof came at Paris Fashion Week, where Beckham made her debut on the schedule – a monumental moment in her career, which she described both as a dream and a daunting reality. To amplify the business move, she zeroed in on her brand codes – feminine dresses, sexy tailoring – and finessed them with the help of a restructured design team. “It’s a lot of craft, but it looks very effortless,” she told Vogue’s Anders Christian Madsen. “There’s an ease with the collection, but you can see that there’s a lot of work… Things feel perfectly complicated.”
Beckham, her own best brand ambassador, embraced this new neat, artisan-focused outlook in her own wardrobe. Taking a bow in a form-fitting yet fluid black dress with elegant shoulder slits, it toed the line between sensual and serious – a tough one to nail when the aim is for nothing to be superfluous. Later, she celebrated Brand Beckham being part of the Paris conversation in an artfully executed forest-green dress – just a few shades darker than the ruched number she sent Bella Hadid down the runway in. Yes Beckham has made day-to-night dresses for years, but these precision-cut pieces, along with the easy-but-immaculate suiting, felt like a “flag-in-the-sand moment for the brand”.
Beckham seems to thrive under pressure, always making time to capture the process (only boss bitch suiting will do in the atelier) and the support network behind her (Harper is now BFFs with the Hadid sisters). The difference this time around? The designer said she had made it her mission to have fun. “I’m doing this in a very humble way,” shared Victoria. “When you think of everything we’ve been through, to be doing a show in Paris as an independent brand, it’s a really big deal. It feels like a real moment.”
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Whether the restrategising left her a little lighter or the promise of Paris drove her to push herself further than before, Beckham certainly looked the part of ambitious businesswoman who knows what she wants. It will be interesting to see how this rigorous approach to design carries the brand, which also aims to be financially accessible, forward. For now, the image of Beckham owning it is certainly a big selling point.
