Victoria Beckham raised the stakes with her fashion label even as she’s lowered prices, by showing it on the runway for the first time at Paris Fashion Week on Friday.
Don Julio on the rocks was served to guests entering the 17th-century church and monastery of Val-de-Grâce in the 5th arrondissement. It was cocktail hour, after all, and she had a crowd of next-gen Paris designers there as well-wishers, including Simon Porte Jacquemus, Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Nicolas di Felice.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to show in Paris,” Beckham said during a WWD preview in London.
The former Spice Girl has been tweaking her business plan over the last year, hiring a new design director, Lara Barrio, and launching accessories and body lines. The spring collection delivered on both new categories and brought a younger, sexier edge to the brand, with plenty of lingerie influences, lace and latex, and fresh takes on the season’s fringe trend, alongside Beckham’s trademark offbeat color mixes, featuring chartreuse, mustard, pink, periwinkle, red, black and white.
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There were lots of bias-cut slips, and cascading ruffle minidresses draped and cut to reveal lacy VB underthings and stockings with VB logos. Jersey dresses, ruched into a heart over the chest, had twin cutouts at the top of the derriere, revealing latex leggings underneath.
Although tailoring was less of a focus than in past seasons, there were some chic pantsuits, one in black with a sleeveless, backless blazer, belt left trailing, and low-slung pants worn by Gigi Hadid, and another in a powdery pink with a subtle sheen, with a sleek buttonless jacket and creased trousers.
Tassel-fringe clutch bags were quirky and fun, making models look as if they were carrying mop dogs. The fringe fest continued on a black pointelle knit bodysuit and stirrup pants with a shimmying miniskirt, and on knit dresses with asymmetrical draped rows of the stuff.
Somewhere in the middle of the show there was a lone pair of faded jeans worn with a white moto jacket, which is probably more in the ballpark of what Beckham’s die-hard fans would really be buying from her at a lower price point, along with a bra and panties, perhaps. But a Paris runway makes for nice window dressing and brand-building and the throngs waiting for a glimpse at the gates outside were sure happy to see her when she came out to greet them.