When you think about it, the landscape of fashion is populated with female British designers and self-starting fashion entrepreneurs, Victoria Beckham having graduated to that disparate sisterhood a decade ago. Happy anniversary, VB! Only today, people scurried to make her show in the middle of a London-wide circuit which included Simone Rocha, Margaret Howell, Emilia Wickstead and Phoebe English. Their common denominator? Being certain and direct, each in her own way. The Victoria Beckham way? Enveloping women in empathy, attainable easy-chic solutions, and in the charming force-field of her self-irony.
For Spring, Beckham’s options were essentially whittled down to neat-and-together tailoring with a slight ’70s flavor, and flowy, waist-free silk ankle-length dresses. “There’s a lot of focus on dresses,” said Beckham in a preview at her West London HQ. “I like the ruffles that dance as you’re moving. There’s a lot of volume. The patterns are much more complicated, but they feel very light and flattering—you feel very little in them. “
In the olden days of Victoria Beckham, feeling “very little” meant being encased in power-meshed body-con knee length dresses (see how far she’s come by checking out her first show, reviewed by Nicole Phelps in 2009). With time, Beckham has gone with the general flow (which is now very liberatingly flowy, thanks to the influence of Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino), while always—to her credit—scrutinizing why and how any garment translates as practicable and relatable to a laywoman.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
