For her show at New York fashion week on Sunday morning, Victoria Beckham wore head-to-toe black, an outfit that any follower of the designer would recognise as fairly typical.
That formula, however, may be about to be shaken up come spring. Beckham’s collection on the runway was a riot of colour and print – gingham, pumpkin orange, hibiscus flowers, an image of a surfer on a wave and windowpane checks, sometimes all in the same outfit.
If Beckham has in the past been associated with pin-neat, block-colour minimalism, this was the designer experimenting a little. “I don’t wear a lot of print,” she said. “So I was excited by working on it. It’s been a tough week but this is a very liberating collection.”
It’s perhaps testament to her development as a designer that Beckham began the collection by looking at something she didn’t like, in this case print, as a challenge to make something that she did.
The show started with ginghams on knitted dresses in a colour palette of clarets and khakis. It continued with loose chiffon dresses and culottes, with vibrant prints.
The strongest of these was the black and white graphic of a surfer, which had something of Warhol about it. It featured on a trapeze dress with a deep V, and was spliced with other abstract prints in pumpkin orange and bright blue on chiffon pleats. The breakthrough came with this collage effect.
“We took the print, we disrupted it, we chopped it up,” Beckham said. “It’s flattering, it’s not overly challenging, so I’m absolutely going to be wearing that.”
Other elements of the collection included slipdresses in crushed duchesse satin, suede tunic dresses, boxy jackets in light leather, kitten heels and huge oversized bags. Dubbed the “half moon” for their crescent shape, they will no doubt appeal to anyone who needs to lug a laptop around town.
The balance Beckham struck was between gaining catwalk buzz and pleasing her now sizeable customer base who know her for a sleek simplicity. “A show is great, but I want women to be able to wear the clothes as well,” she said.
Along with more fluid silhouettes, there were “long and lean shapes that people associate with my brand. I’m in a really good place and I think you can see that in the collection”.
As always, work and life merge in Beckham’s brand, partly inspired by her status as a frequent flyer. “I travel a lot and I’m a sponge. New York, London and LA are referenced,” she said. “I try everything on. If we’re selling clothes for different climates, I want to make sure we get the fabric weights right.”
Beckham launched her label with a small collection of dresses in 2008 to much scepticism from inside the fashion industry, expecting another celebrity line.
The former pop star has proved herself, however, both commercially and critically, with clothes that draw on her slick, pulled-together personal style.
The label made £30m in 2013, and is projected to reach £200m by 2019, and rumours of a potential buyout by a fashion conglomerate surfaced recently.
The Mayfair shop that opened last year is the first in a retail expansion plan and another is planned for Hong Kong next. Beckham has also been recognised by the industry. Celebrities including Rosamund Pike and Gwyneth Paltrow wear her designs and she won Brand of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2014.
