And they all said a Spice Girl couldn’t be a ‘serious’ designer…
And they all said a Spice Girl couldn’t be a ‘serious’ designer…
In 8 short years Victoria Beckham has established herself as one of the fashion industry’s greatest players, becoming the toast of New York Fashion Week, producing four critically-acclaimed collections per year, and making us all fall in love with those oh so incredible bags.
Here are her best shows to date…
2008: Posh’s Debut It all started with a capsule, 15 dress collection. The artist formally known as Posh Spice had dabbled in the denim market before, but in September 2008 she launched her vision for spring 2009 during an intimate NYFW presentation – sheath and shift dresses in ‘sucky-sucky’ jerseys, in quality cuts that made the fash pack instantly take notice.
2009: Round Two Victoria upped the ante for autumn, presenting a cocktail-ready range that showed even more skill. Some of her 23 looks were topped with coats and capes, plus there were new sheath and column gown shapes, showing she was serious about dressing fellow red carpet stars. In the months to follow, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz would both wear VB.
2011: The First Full Runway After gradually, professionally building up her skill set, Victoria Beckham presented her first full-scale runway show in September 2011, her spring 2012 collection. She’d established her signatures – flattering, well-constructed hourglass dresses – but was moving her aesthetic on with sportswear influences, hardware details and great leather bags.
2013: The Menswear Vibes On the 5th anniversary of her label, VB experimented with what is now one of her signatures, androgyny, for the first time. She paired razor-sharp satin tuxedo jackets with soft jumpsuits and inventing our absolute favourite VB styling concept, shoulder robe-ing, when she hung men’s wool jackets over evening dresses.
2014: The Family Affair The entire Beckham clan turned out in their Sunday best to support their mum’s autumn 2014 show. Victoria’s show was cooler than ever, with edgy chains and hardware punctuating her elongated wool crepe coats and deconstructed knits layered over fine silk skirts. With this collection, she proved, she has a real eye as a stylist.
2014: Shoe In VB designed and developed her own shoe line for the spring 2015 collection, a major breakthrough for her company that has become a huge money-spinner. She also played with florals for the first time, but kept them disjointed and cool, rather than flouncy and fussy.
2015: The Latest Hit Showing just how much both our taste for what’s glamorous, and she as a designer has changed and moved on in the last 8 years, Victoria’s SS16 collection was hailed her best to date. She’s still catering for the woman who wants to look sophisticated and ultra-feminine, just as she was when she started out, but VB’s vision has moved with the times and now she’s setting the pace for what luxury fashion is, for other designers and high street retailers to follow. All hail VB.
