Victoria Beckham with British Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman
On seeing
the crowded theatre at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, Victoria Beckham’s
first words were, “all of you want to hear me talk, I hope I will say something
good now”. This drew laughter from the audience and it set the tone for the
next hour as the former pop princess turned fashion designer talked about her
fashion career and the amount of dedication it takes to become the woman who
really has it all.
After Spice
Girls split up, Victoria Beckham could have become the one no-one would have
remembered but after a brief flirtation with the football WAG (Wives and
Girlfriends) club, Victoria went on to become a household name in the world of
celebrity. Many people tittered at the thought of Victoria going into fashion
but she had the last laugh, with the likes of Hollywood stars wearing her
dresses on the red carpet. Pictures papped by the paparazzi hardly do her any justice,
in the flesh, she is healthy and happy with a self-deprecating personality that
endears everyone to her charm and honesty.
What gives you the initial idea for your
fashion collections?
“Each
season, I get inspired by something different. I am fortunate to be able to
travel a lot, to call London my home as well as Los Angeles, so last winter for
example, my Victoria line was inspired by the Californian lifestyle. You can
see that in the structure, in the prints and in the style of the dresses.
Whereas my main line was inspired purely by one day, Romeo running in from school
and he was wearing a baseball shirt and I thought ‘that looks really cool’ and
so I had a baseball theme running through the ready –to-wear collection. The
beanie hats were inspired by David wearing beanie hats. I get inspired by
travelling and being at home and being a wife and a mother.
“It is
great being back in London. London is such an inspiring place to live, so
multicultural and interesting. I am happy”
How do you convey what you want in your
collection to your team?
“At the
start of every season, I sit down with my team and I talk about what I like,
what I don’t like and what I like to wear myself. Ultimately I am designing
clothes that I want to wear myself. What I often do, I use things that I don’t
normally wear or find challenging to wear and I might have that as a starting
point and find a way for me to like it. I want to challenge myself fashion wise
each season. I want to push myself and try something new. It is all about
communication. I have such a great team and I am lucky to have them and we are
all very close and we sit down and we talk. Then I get naked and make clothes
on myself!”
You like to challenge yourself. When do you
think that first started?
“I have
always dreamt of being in the fashion industry. It is always something that I have
felt in my tummy that I have always had to do. Before I started on my own line,
I was working with a denim brand and a sunglasses brand, so I was dipping my
toe in the industry for a while before I could take the licensing deals and
bring them in house and fund everything myself, it is all self funded. So I don’t
have any licensing deals at all and when I was in a position to do that, that
is when it felt right.”
What do you look for in your team as the people
you work with?
“My team
are so great. We are a small team but we are growing. They are all incredibly,
talented, passionate and focused. I also think it is important to enjoy the
people you are working with, we have a lot of fun every day. They are
passionate for what they do and they believe in my brand and what I’m creating,
I have the same team that I had when I first started over six years ago. I
really encourage my team to grow with me as I grow with the brand as well. I
have a few people who started out with me as interns that now have high up jobs
in marketing, press and sales as well. It is a really nice family atmosphere.”
It must be a different experience now to work
with the team, person to person, rather than over Skype.
“It is
great. I am very hands on with every aspect of the business. I never did as
much Skype as it came across. Every time I did an interview where I said I had
a call on Skype, everybody thought that was how I designed my collections, via
Skype. It was never that way. I did a lot of travelling which was difficult
because I don’t want to leave my children. Being a working mum, you feel guilty
every time you go out the door and you have to work. It is great to be in
London and I am going to my studio every day which is just over the bridge in
Battersea. It is great that I am here all the time, I have five categories now
and I have just launched e-commerce and I am looking into retail. There are a
lot of balls I am juggling at the moment and it is definitely easier being
here.”
When did you think that it was real possibility
that you could be in fashion?
“I don’t
think there was one particular moment, it is what I always wanted to do. I did
a presentation when I first started ten seasons ago, I had a room at a hotel in
New York and I did sometimes one-on-one presentations or group presentations
and I did that for four days to fashion press, buyers and I literally talked
through the collection. I had ten dresses and I would sit there and talk about
them. The dress would come out on a model and I would unzip the dress and talk
about the corsetry and the inspiration and the fabrics. Sometimes I would be
talking for hours on end to people who did not actually speak English! I just
like the talk so I would be talking away, I really wanted people to understand
the concept and understand why we do it. I remember that it was 3am and I would
be standing in the florist in the hotel in my slippers trying to decide on the
flowers. I didn’t have a stylist to decide the hair and make-up, things have come
such a long way since those days.
“I think
right at the beginning, I didn’t know what people would think and there were
lots of raised eyebrows, or those that could raise their eyebrows, when they
heard that I was going to do this. Pop star who is married to a footballer
really going to do a clothing line? A lot of people had preconceptions and I didn’t
go out to prove anybody wrong. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”
You would never get Karl Lagerfield showing how
something was pieced together.
“I was so
proud of it. I wasn’t out to prove to anybody that I know the ins and outs of
this dress, I genuinely did. I never set out to talk through the collection, it
just happened naturally. I was doing it for four days and it just came
naturally to me. I am sure people were thinking ‘shut up, stop going on about
grograin waistband but for me, it was important to do that.”
What drove you to move from the presentations
to the show?
“I have
eight minutes to show the industry, the buyers, the press, my customer, what my
fashion is that season. It is important to me to do this. I have moved from the
small presentations to a big show, though I do like to keep it as personal as I
can. It is great, I have eight minutes, it is incredibly expensive and the
pressure’s on and I get the opportunity to collaborate with the best people in
the industry with regards to the style, the hair and the make-up. Such a lot of
thought and time and effort goes into the eight minutes. People would be quite
shocked at the conversations that I have for days on end, even months on end
actually, with regards to the set, the lighting, the music, the hair and
make-up and the styling. I love it, there is a lot of pressure and it is
incredibly expensive.
“I like
people to see my collection through my eyes and I have eight minutes to do
that. I am a perfectionist, I like everything to be right and I am probably a
complete pain in the neck to work with as it is important to me. It really is.
I have grown this brand from nothing to where it is now.”
Would you ever show in London?
“I would
say never say never. Maybe one day but I have a really good thing going in New
York. I get a great slot in fashion week, the Americans have made me feel so
welcome and the American fashion industry have been so supportive. America is a
huge market for me but I would never say never. I am proud to be British and I love
to support the British fashion industry in any way I can. I am very proud but
may be one day at some point.”
How involved are you in the financial aspects
of line? Do you get a budge to work with?
“I am very
aware of everything that goes on with the brand and I like being creative but
at the same time, I am running a business so I have two parts to my collection.
I have, what I call, my signature part of the collection which is what my
customer really wants and the other is very Victoria Beckham. I always like to push
myself and have a strong fashion message as well. I do have to take into
account that I am running a business and I am very aware how much the fabrics
cost, how much the make costs, if I decide to put an extra pocket detail on
something, I know that is going to cost more money.”
How do you deal with criticism?
“I think
that I can learn from constructive criticism. No one is going to be nice all
the time. It would be unrealistic to think that I will never get any criticism
so I take on constructive criticism. There are a lot of members of the fashion
press who have been on this journey with me, I haven’t done this myself. I do
have a great team. “
Do you get frustrated by people talking about
you and your fashion lines as being the same thing?
“Right at
the beginning, I was so aware of preconceptions and I think there is less of
that now. People are now judging the collection for the collection. They did that right at the beginning and that is
what I was grateful to the industry for. They came into the room and they were
judging the clothes for the clothes, they left their preconceptions at the
door. I had that conversation with Marc Jacobs not too long ago and he said ‘you
have got to stop saying that, they did not leave their preconceptions at the
door. The clothes spoke for themselves and you earned what they said about the
collection’. I am very aware of it less and less now and the clothes are
speaking for themselves.”
In the start, you only wore your clothes but
now you are more comfortable wearing other designers.
“I am
wearing myself today but I love to mix it up. I enjoy fashion. I love Prada,
Balenciaga, Lanvin, there are so many incredible designers which I love to
wear. I like to support other designers. There are lots of British designers I love
to support and there are lots of women as well. There are so many strong women
out there and I love clothes.”
How do you get dressed in the morning?
“Well I put
one foot in and then the other… I have four kids. Brooklyn is here today,
watching me and realising that mummy has a job now. He is realising that I actually
do something. I have four kids so I don’t have much time as I would like to, to
think about what I am going to wear. When I go to sleep at night, I think about
what I am going to wear the next day. It was interesting that I was having this
conversation with David the other day and he does the same thing about
football. I had the same conversation with Gordon Ramsay who said he visualises
food the night before. You visualise what your passion is.”
Generally, are you are a morning or an evening
person?
“A little
bit of both. I am up early in the morning to get the kids ready for school and
going through timetables tests and spelling tests. I am also up late at night
as I have a baby and then I have a 14 year old who refuses to go to bed-
Brooklyn. So I am up late and early, I don’t get enough sleep. It is only then I
get time to pluck my eyebrows and put on a face pack, those sorts of thing. I
don’t get as much sleep as I would like.”
How do you deal with travelling?
“Dark
glasses. I don’t travel so much now, that is why we decided to spend more time
in London. We call LA our home and we call London our home, which is the best
of both worlds really. I don’t travel so much, I don’t like to. I have to go
back and forth to New York for work and I like to do lots of in stores to
understand my retailer wants and what my customers want.”
You have been snapped in flats recently, have
high heels had their day?
“(looking
at the heels on her feet) No. I do actually wear flats. I wore flats and the
amount of attention the flats got, it was quite ridiculous really. Of course I wear flats, I always wear them. I
am not into platforms so much now, but I do like heels.”
How do you juggle work and family life?
“I don’t
know. It is all about juggling. It is just like any working mum out there, you
just try to do your best. You constantly feel guilty but it is about being
disciplined really. I have good people who handle my schedule. So if there is a
parent’s night or a nativity play, I plan everything around that so I can
always be there and always be involved with the school and cater to what the
school need. I really enjoy being a mum more than anything and I would do
anything for my kids but I love doing what I do and it is about getting the
balance right which is not easy at all.”
