September 9, 2008
Victoria Beckham presents her debut fashion collection 4711607Lisa Armstrong, Fashion Editor
There is something surreal about sitting in a suite in the historic Waldorf Hotel, slap in the middle of Park Avenue Princess territory, while a former Spice Girl presents her debut fashion collection. Not just any Spice Girl, but Victoria Beckham, a woman who, only recently, poured herself into a gold leather Roberto Cavalli bustier and matching leggings for the Spice Girls tour.
Yet there we were, a handful of fashion editors (her husband hadn’t yet seen it although he kept texting her for progress reports) and Victoria herself with newly spikey hair, perched on gilded Louis something sofas and sipping sparkling water while three models paraded past our knees. This was so ladylike it made the Windsors look common, so demure it made the scrum in Bryant Park, New York fashion week’s official headquarters, look like a hooligans’ rout at Millwall. Over and again, when describing each outfit (all of which were dresses), the novice fashion designer used the word “classy”.
And guess what? They were.
In fact ­ and I can’t quite believe I’m writing this ­ it was a very impressive, accomplished collection, with not a single dud. True there were only ten designs, in various colours, each adhering to the aesthetic the designer has favoured in her own wardrobe of late: slender calf-length fitted dresses with raised waists. But it was the fabrics (silk, wool and organza) and the attention to detail that impressed.
Light-weight internal corsetry and inner, inner gros-grain waistbands to make extra sure everything stayed in place, a tie neckline that could be flipped back at night (because she’d noticed that’s what David did sometimes with his bow ties “and it’s sexy”), folded tucks at the bustline to give a “classy” 40s look to strapless dresses and guarantee against wardrobe malfunctions, which would be “vulgar”.
One could quibble with her definition of what makes a perfect day dress for the average busy mother ­ apparently anything that could double up as a cocktail dress ­ and her notion that a black corset dress should be a staple in every woman’s life, but these aren¹t for the masses, retailing between £650 ­ £1900 and produced in tiny numbers (there will be no more than 400 of the first collection). There's certainly no arguing with her intimate knowledge of what makes a dress photograph as well from the back as from the front, what makes a corset bearable when worn for fourteen hours on the trot, and what constitutes an investment piece. These were what she called “Sucky sucky” dresses, “designed to hold you in, not challenge your body”. They will go up to a size 14 and she’d love to see Nigella Lawson or Dame Helen Mirren in them.
Reactions from retailers seems positive. “It’s very sophisticated, easy and commercial,” says Harvey Nichols fashion director Averyl Oates. “It will be interesting to see how it evolves”. But what of the designers whose clothes VB has worn over the years and who had clearly influenced her aesthetic, notably Roland Mouret, who is also backed by Simon Fuller, the Beckham’s manager and who is rumoured to have “assisted” with this collection?
“They’ve been very encouraging” says Beckham, insisting that while Mouret gave her some advice and helped her appoint her tiny London based team of four, she designed it on her own, fiddling with toiles at home in LA and emailing endless pictures back to the pattern cutter in London. “I’ve been working on this for 34 years,” she says. “I always wanted to be a fashion designer. Then along came the Spice Girls which opened a lot of doors for me. And, let¹s be honest, closed a lot. But those days are over. I was never going to be the world’s best singer, but I hope I can be a good designer.”
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