Victoria Beckham launches beauty with a Foreign Office show

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 15, 2019

The show invitation telegraphed the latest news in the repositioning of Victoria Beckham, who staged a consummately professional show on a sunny Sunday afternoon in London.

 
Attendees were greeted by a large honeycomb board featuring various elements of a face – cutouts from a giant poster introducing Victoria Beckham Beauty.
 
“Luxury, performance, clean beauty,” read the tagline, which could have summed up this collection.

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Around 400 guests gathered inside the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Westminster, a grandiose Victorian building constructed on the spoils of colonial India. A giant statue of the man who conquered the sub-continent, Clive, stands outside. 
 
Security was tight as one entered the building, below the former office of Boris Johnson, during his very brief tenure as foreign secretary.
 
David Beckham and the couple's four kids were sitting front row behind Vogue editors-in-chief and former buddies Edward Enninful and Anna Wintour, underneath the glass roof of the marbled courtyard. 
 
Indeed, it felt like one was in the Beaux-Arts in Paris rather than a Victoria building in London, so smooth and classy was this collection. Quite simply, these were the most expensive looking clothes Beckham has produced. Mannish black and white houndstooth pantsuits oozed authority, while check blazers were paired with romantic blouses and perfectly draped skirts imparting confidence and class.
 
A whole series of ruffled blouses and cocktail dresses were impressive, as was the color palette – deep purples, dark peppermints and fresh aubergines. Polished, precise, pretty and, well, posh.
 
Hyper precise chignons courtesy of hairstylist Guido Palau, and super smooth make by Pat McGrath were also the ideal compliment to this collection. And Victoria’s own smoky idea and color palette.
 
In a revolutionary approach, the house’s French backers dreamed up this indie beauty business model, eschewing the easier option of a license with a giant like L’Oréal or Estée Lauder. The success of Victoriabeckhambeauty.com will be vital for the house’s future and it got off to a great start with this runway debut.

 
“Controlled and free, living life, reality and believability. There is always a duality in women, moving between different ideas, different moods. I want clothes that move with a woman, that move with her life,” explained Beckham.
 
She took her bow with a big wave underneath a large marble arch inside the ministry, ideal for the woman who, in the decade since opening her house, has become Britain’s most famous fashion plenipotentiary.