Despite anti-fashion protests and continuing Brexit drama, London Fashion Week put its best foot forward at the weekend with Victoria Beckham, one of the industry’s heavyweight names, setting the tone.
The former Spice Girl’s spring show was staged in the palatial grandeur of the Foreign Office’s Durbar Court first used for the Sultan of Turkey in 1867 and a stone’s throw from Westminster’s Houses of Parliament. Security was strict.
Husband David Beckham dressed in a pale grey suit and their four children sat front row while other guests included the actress, Helen Mirren, Billy Porter, Anna Wintour – sitting beside Beckham’s 8-year-old daughter Harper – and Irish activist Sinead Burke.
With 24 million Instagram followers and a global luxury fashion brand, Beckham is her own best advertisement, a woman well used to public scrutiny and with a figure honed from a daily 90 minute workout.
On Tuesday her new beauty line launches in her Dover Street store and online. “I’ve got my foot on the gas” she said recently.
The spring collection was all about “dynamic women” according to the show notes. It paired disciplined, razor sharp tailoring with long super feminine ruffled dresses in luminous block colours – pink, pistachio, emerald green and turquoise.
The real story, however was the return of the midi skirt with open panels (the better for the stride) in creamy, biscuit and camel shades, neutral hues that highlighted shots of colour in the ensembles.
Confident and sensual
Contrasts were deliberate. A white coat shrugged over a gingham check suit counterpointed a neon green ruffled evening dress slit to the waist – another, a backless number in deep brown was anchored with a gold necklace and very elegant – though many of the models were painfully thin.
Suits were a strong point – a white trouser suit with flared trousers sporting a black corsage was particularly dashing while others in sleek tweed will appeal to the professional working woman.
“For me it is about a woman feeling confident and sensual in her clothes. I want clothes that move with a woman, that move with her life”, Beckham said.
Given that she is the very embodiment of a successful modern woman and whatever she wears, women want to buy, it is no surprise that her brand continues to grow with a strong fan base in Ireland.
“She has kept the look cool, edgy and chic, but her colours really stood out this time” commented Shelly Corkery of Brown Thomas afterwards.
