The crispness and conciseness of Victoria Beckham’s pre-fall imagery speaks for itself, but her clothes are even better viewed on a rack than in pictures. Fashion in mid-season collections can often feel like designing-by-rote, blanded-down fillers between more important runway statements. Something for a brand to just get through. That’s not the VB way. As a woman entrepreneur with her name over the door—and on her booming beauty products—every bit of what she does is personal.
“I love working on pre-collections, because I love the fact that everything is very wearable, but with a strong fashion message as well,” she began as she was leafing through rails of tailoring, shirting, dresses, coats, and knitwear in her office in Hammersmith, west London. She said she’d watched the series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and was inspired by the precision of 1940s and ’50s American society dressing—you can perhaps see the echo most directly in the knitted ski-like hoods (Little Edie-like?) and the slightly deconstructed evening and cocktail dresses she’s been selling successfully for seasons.
But life is hardly one long party, especially now. What VB is achieving these days is a whole wardrobe, with the confident, easy-seeming everyday glamour that most women aim to exude on a daily basis, but which only comes about from a fanatical amount of work, follow-through, and detailed, practical insight and empathy on the part of a designer.
This, in a time when the luxury industry is struggling to persuade women that fashion is worth it, is putting Victoria Beckham—who also strives to achieve non-insane pricing—is putting her ahead. “I’m really proud of that. You know, we do a lot of research into our fabrics to make sure that we can create beautiful garments that are considered well executed, but at the right price,” she said. “I think about all those years ago, you know, when I was doing presentations in the Waldorf Astoria in New York, it was all about silhouette, and that has just evolved. It’s still the obsession with silhouette. I think that we’ve really taken our time and done things at a pace, and I’ve not gone into new categories until I had the knowledge and can execute things in the right way.”
We’ll be seeing the reality of the VB work process in a whole lot more detail next year, of course. Her Netflix documentary comes out in 2025.
