Victoria Beckham came home today to show at London Fashion Week for the first time. Backstage, she told us about her brand turning 10, the challenges - and the hilarious moments in the run up to the show…
It’s hard to believe it was 10 years ago that Victoria Beckham first stood up in front of a crowd of fashion editors during New York Fashion Week to talk them through her very first collection. But today she brought it on home to London Fashion Week, celebrating her brand’s landmark birthday with an impeccably polished show that was a tour de force of the ‘house codes’ she’s developed over the last decade designing. “I get so nervous, I really do,” she told Marie Claire after the show.
“You spend months and months and months creating the collection – I want to do the best I can and give my customer what she wants. You never know what might happen: one of the girls might have fallen down the stairs, I might have fallen down the stairs! But that’s what makes it exciting.”
Of course, being VB, nothing of the sort actually happened. Instead, after a suitably light fashion breakfast (read: coconut water with lime, avocado on delicate pieces of rye bread) at her Dover Street store, it was off to the dazzlingly white Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac next door. “Even though this is a show, I also like it to feel very personal,” she explained. “I like to look at luxury in a luxurious environment, which I think this is. It’s important that things are calm - I don’t want to run crazy late, I don’t want everything to be very last minute. There’s always going to be an element of that but I like to control it as much as I can.”
And control it she did. Stella Tennant opened the show, which mixed a light, playful whimsy – ditsy floral prints layered together, delicate shirts spliced together from sheer lace – with the elegant wardrobe building blocks she’s built her reputation on. Long, narrow trousers split up the ankle and worn with flat metallic boots were designed to give legs for days: “who doesn’t want that?” she said. “I’ve jazzed mine up today with a heel because I felt I should make an effort, but they look equally great with flats.”
Although it was brimming with the silhouettes we’ve come to know and love, this wasn’t a retrospective, she said, but an illustration of the house codes she’s built. “Masculine vs femininity, for example. The use of the beautiful lace feels feminine, but then showing it with a more masculine pant, that’s something every woman needs in her wardrobe – whether you’re wearing it on a hot summers’ day or under a tux jacket on the red carpet or at a cocktail event. It’s about giving my customer choice.”
There’s definitely one piece guaranteed to sell like hotcakes – the 10th Anniversary t-shirts that go on-sale today, emblazoned with an updated version of her iconic ‘Victoria in a paper bag’ Juergen Teller campaign. This time around, the Beckham legs poking out are wearing the ‘Eva’ shoes. “This week, we’ve been in the studio really, really late at night and the team have been taking pictures of themselves in bags with their feet. It really has entertained me this week, in my delirium – keep them coming…”
What a difference a decade makes. “I remember with my first show, just waiting to see what everybody thought. I was a pop star going into the fashion industry and that could have gone one of two ways.” We’d say it’s gone pretty well so far…
