Victoria Beckham On Bringing Sexy Back, How Miami Changed Her Style And Getting Back To The Office

Victoria BeckhamVictoria Beckham is on a mission to ‘bring sexy back’. ‘I want dressing up, I want to make an occasion of it, I want to celebrate being a woman,’ she said at a preview of her pre-fall 2022 collection in her west London studio. ‘I don’t want to hide under baggy clothes. I don’t want to talk about being in lockdown and wanting to go out dressed comfortably, I think it’s time to start dressing properly and get to the office again, to be perfectly honest’.

That sexiness, and her desire to really celebrate the female body, has been spurred on by the increasing amount of time she is spending in Miami. There over the second lockdown, Beckham was struck by the feeling of having ‘nothing to wear’ (yes, even VB) admitting that turning to her favoured pussy-bow blouses and midi skirts would look ‘crazy’ in a city where people go out with ‘not a lot of clothing on’.

She has found the body-confidence of Miami inspiring. Having deliberated whether she could still wear short skirts ('I can. We all can!') she also felt a renewed desire to wear tighter clothes. 'I haven’t dressed like that for a long, long time. The more I got into fashion the more clothes I was wearing, the more layers, the bigger the clothes, the lower the shoes. And actually I was ready to make a change and I wanted to celebrate being a woman and having a feminine body and not burying myself and hiding that. I wanted to be a bit more sexy'.

This being Beckham, her resurgent interest in the sexy is given an elevated, uncomplicated, grown-up treatment. ‘Consideration’ is the word she uses over and over. This is translated via multi-zip dresses that can reveal and conceal as much at the wearer wants, intricate seaming on the back of skirts to ‘really make the most of a great bum’, and sensual cut outs that aren’t intimidating.

The sexy spirit is coupled with an inherent practicality and the ease of menswear. In her clothes, Beckham exhibits generosity and an innate understanding of who her customer is. Case in point: she is one of those rare designers who accommodates the fact that some of us need to wear a bra (me, for one! And I speak from experience, I do wear the brand). ‘For me, “commercial” isn’t a swear word, and it shouldn’t mean compromise. I think it’s about providing what women want,’ is how she puts it.

What women also want now, she knows, are clothes that are worth the investment, ones which earn their place in your wardrobe on a cost-per-wear basis (her customer is responding well, she says, to the merging of the mainline with the Victoria, Victoria Beckham collections, a move made last year). Standouts include the lean pants, Japanese denim separates and a reversible trench with poppy red seams. Polo neck bodies are one of VB’s favourite pieces for their ability to give looks transseasonal appeal. Fabrics, like stretch velvet, coated wool and compact jersey offer ease and comfort without sacrificing polish.

A master of colour (she is wearing pistachio cord flares and a purple blouse when we meet), the collection’s palette sees neutral shades – chocolate brown, cool grey, khaki – lit up by electric shots of acid green and tangerine, inspired by the mossy banquettes and orange walls at the Sant Ambroeus restaurant in Palm Beach. ‘For me having that little wink of, dare I say, bad taste mixed with good taste and elegance is very, very important,’ she says. ‘That’s what gives it the cool factor’.

Indicative of her growing confidence as a designer, and her helming an established fashion brand, this season also sees Beckham introduce a VB monogram for the first time. Found on intarsia knits and fluid silk twill, it’s subtle and, like so much of the collection, possesses an if you know, you know self-possession.

And over a decade into her own brand, Beckham is now at the point of being able to revisit her own archive for inspiration. All that time in Miami has also given her a hankering to wear those ‘sucky-sucky’ stretch knit dresses from the early collections, the ones not unlike her Posh days, and an evolution of the body-con silhouettes she loved in the noughts. These are set to revived in a new VB Body collection coming this spring, with prices starting at just £90. It's a savvy move. She already knows her customer wants them – they’ve been asking shop staff when they can get hold of the mini dresses they’ve spied her wearing them. ‘Ultimately this isn’t a vanity project. I’m doing this because I want women to wear and feel good about themselves in these clothes,’ she says. ‘And I want to wear them too’.