Victoria Beckham AW19 review: Fluid femininity in a collection that oozed cool elegance
'The collection oozed the brand’s usual cool elegance and minimalist chic,' writes Harriet Hall
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Your support makes all the difference.To reference the Spice Girls when discussing Victoria Beckham’s fashion line is to do her a distinct disservice.
The designer – now some 10 years in the game – threw off her platform-shoed beginnings long ago. So distant is the connection between Beckham now and Posh Spice then, one can hardly connect the two when watching one of her catwalk shows.
This season’s autumn/winter 2019 collection presented in the Tate Britain’s central atrium (after the brand returned from New York to show on British soil last season) oozed the brand’s usual cool elegance and minimalist chic.
Watched proudly by the whole motley Beckham crew (David, Romeo, Brooklyn, Cruz and Harper) in the front row, as well as the designer’s sister Louise Adams, the collection was characterised by smart, slouchy tailoring and relaxed silhouettes that combined traditional masculine shapes with elegant femininity.
Loose silk shirts were paired with high-waisted wide-legged trousers or skirts and midi-dresses were cut in fluid silk.
Evening wear, too, was roomy – even racy black lace and plunging necklines with jagged scalloped edges.
Beckham injected her usual muted tones with gentle hints of lilac and pale teal, and occasional jolts of reds and electric blues and demure patterns took away any potential preppiness and lent garments an edge via Seventies-style chain-link prints or chequered red. Taking inclement British winter into account, Beckham exhibited irresistibly warm-looking tweed coats and capes as well as soft mohair knits and scarves, and blazers layered atop snug-fitting polo necks.
After a brief departure from her signature stilettos (around 2016, after Celine’s then creative director, Phoebe Philo, made heels fashion poison by wearing Adidas Stan Smiths) Beckham was all about the spindly heels for autumn/winter 2019.
This season they came in the form of Vetements-inspired calf-length sock boots in bright red, leopard print and black suede as well as slouchy brown pirate leather and uncharacteristically bright pink and orange court shoes.
The show was presented amid increasing losses for Victoria Beckham Ltd, which has been the case since 2013. Last December, despite rising sales, the group suffered a reported annual loss of £10.2 million in 2017, up from £8.2m the preceding year. A popular high-street diffusion with US-based Target has done nothing to curtail this.
If the future of the brand is indeed at risk, one wouldn’t have suspected this from the hordes of supporters that attended the show or even the clothes themselves. These were ensembles for the successful woman. About the collection, the designer said: “For autumn/winter 2019 I have been thinking about what women want, about modern femininity and about how to curate those ideas into a collection for today.”
Sadly, this appeared to refer only to the impossibly thin, as evidenced by Beckham’s casting. Nevertheless, the predominant feeling was one, not of girl but of woman power.
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