David and Victoria Beckham joined the effort to help the victims of typhoon Haiyan on Friday – in their own inimitable style. They gave a huge heap of clothes and accessories to the Red Cross shop in Chelsea, west London, to be sold off, with funds donated to the charity's work in the Philippines.
The clear-out was sizeable – Victoria Beckham tweeted a picture of a heap of trademark heels she was discarding, with designer names ranging from Gina to Manolo Blahnik. Each pair, lined up along the wall of the charity shop, was sold for £100.
The sale of the couple's castoffs is likely to raise significant sums. Unlike most old clothes thrown away in an annual clear-out, these have added star power. Fans of the couple queued up outside the tiny Old Church Street shop for a chance to buy their idols' castoffs, and there was a frenzy inside for this one-time-only opportunity to buy into the celebrity wardrobe. Labels showed which Beckham each item had once belonged to – a rack was dedicated to David's suits, while Victoria's old Spice Girls hoodie was on display. Prices ranged from £25 for one of her old belts, to a pair of his box-fresh Adidas for £100. Shoppers came out with buys including Victoria's old Chanel jacket and a Dolce & Gabbana blazer once worn by her husband.
The Beckhams' style has, of course, gone through something of an evolution in recent years – as the clothes on sale here demonstrate. Victoria's pop star moment is evident in that hoodie, but also in fitted denim jackets far too casual for her current polished-to-perfection look. A white suit and black shirt displayed in the window recalled David in the golden days of his Manchester United career, when he might have worn it with curtains for a hairstyle. While the potential for any of these clothes to become museum pieces might still be in doubt, the popularity of this generation-defining couple – and their style – clearly isn't.
