On a recent warm Sunday, Victoria Beckham relaxed into a booth at the Fasano Fifth Avenue, a luxurious hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She wore a black silk suit of her own design, her pout a bit fuller, her slight frame elegant.
Nearby, a pair of sleek, glossy black crutches leaned against the wall, a testament to Beckham’s resilience. A fall at the gym this winter left her injured, but she didn’t let it stop her from taking her bows on crutches at her brand’s runway show at Paris Fashion Week in March. Nor did it prevent her from celebrating her 50th birthday with a lavish party in London or from flying to New York to oversee and star in an ad campaign for her new line of fragrances.
These perfumes expanded the Victoria Beckham Beauty brand she launched in 2019, which itself grew from the fashion line she started in 2008. Back then, many still saw her as Posh, the sophisticated Spice Girl married to British soccer star David Beckham.
When she transitioned from pop star to designer, critics were quick to judge Victoria, who grew up in Hertfordshire, England, as an untrained celebrity dabbling in fashion. Her career sparked much speculation in the fashion world: Is she genuine? Is she selling a stake in her company to luxury giant LVMH? Will her business be profitable?
But Victoria is nothing if not persistent. Sixteen years after starting her brand with her husband and Simon Fuller, the creator of “American Idol,” she is more determined than ever to stand her ground.
“If I’m still being judged, I really don’t care,” Victoria said in her distinctly posh accent. “It’s been a real roller coaster for this brand. But I’m feeling grounded and proud of what I’ve achieved.” With that, she flashed a rare grin. “For so many years in pictures, I didn’t smile. That was definitely a sign of insecurity.”
Victoria has reasons to be optimistic these days. At a time when some luxury fashion businesses are struggling, the Victoria Beckham brand appears to be gaining stability. The business, which had lost money nearly every year since its launch, recently became profitable after expanding into beauty and handbags.
Marie Leblanc, who manages the brand’s fashion division, noted that 2022 was a pivotal year. The company reported revenues of about $75 million, a 44% increase from 2021, when revenues were about $52 million. During the same period, the company’s operating losses shrank to about $1.1 million, down from about $5 million.
“For the first time, both fashion and beauty were profitable,” said Leblanc, who joined Beckham’s brand in 2019 after working at labels like Isabel Marant and Celine. David Belhassen, founder of NEO Investment Partners, a private equity firm that invested about $40 million in Beckham’s brand in 2017, told WWD in May that the company’s operating cash flow grew in 2023.
When she started her line, Victoria insisted on learning every detail of her trade: pricing, turnover, and cost management. She learned the design process by draping dresses on herself. “I’m not claiming to be a master draper,” she told The New York Times in 2010. “The bottom line is: Would I wear this?”
Indeed, she has relied heavily on her instincts. Her husband of 25 years, David, said she has never shied away from hard work. “I’ve always been in awe of her drive and work ethic,” he wrote in an email. “The business has faced many obstacles over the years, but she stuck to her vision.”
She had to suppress her urge to control everything during the production of “Beckham,” the four-part documentary series about her husband and their family released by Netflix last year. “I found that you can’t control every picture, every scene,” she said. “And that took me out of my comfort zone.”
Victoria’s honesty in her scenes nearly stole the show, but the experience was tough. Most challenging were the moments when she had to address her husband’s alleged affair with his personal assistant, Rebecca Loos, in 2003. While David has consistently denied it, there was tension in the marriage. “I was the most unhappy I have ever been in my entire life,” Victoria said in the documentary.
She seems to have made peace with it and discovered something new. During filming, “I didn’t ask questions, I didn’t check the monitor, I didn’t check the lighting,” she said. “There is something quite liberating about that.”
Growing comfortable with letting go hasn’t lessened her ambition. “I’m still incredibly ambitious,” she said. “But I’m also more relaxed. And isn’t that the great thing about getting older?”
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