'Are you saying I'm short?" Victoria Beckham is holding a pair of far from short purple platform boots that reach to her waist. On her models, they'll be a more navigable upper thigh length and a mainstay of the new collection, which inter alia, features shorter hemlines. "I've been trying to work out a way to do shorter skirts for a few seasons," the once mini-skirted one elaborates, "and I think this collection cracks it."
When Beckham says shorter, she doesn’t mean crotch grazing but ladylike knee-skimmers. Box-pleated skirts and culottes in burgundy wool or brown tweeds looked fresh and distinctly different from the billowing midis and maxis that have dominated fashion for the past few season.
“It’s a bit Penelope Tree, a bit Marisa Berenson, but not heavily so,” says Beckham. It was also a bit lumberjack viz some blue and white checks, which added a playful element to an otherwise impeccably glossy wardrobe. “I don’t want it to be about one specific woman, or a single era it’s more of a gentle rebellion.”
There were so many desirable separates including cropped tailored wool trucker jackets and matching wool skirts, slit-elbowed cashmere jumpers and shin length trousers it’s hard to remember that Beckham began her design career with 10 body-con dresses. That was over a decade ago. This collection, so chic and assured, demonstrates how much she, and fashion in general, have evolved.
There was a notable absence of outfits specifically designed for cocktails or parties. Instead, Beckham is focusing on items that can be worn throughout the day, and dressed up at night with one of her sculptural silver hands belts.
Karen Elson, wearing a chestnut coloured draped dress from Beckham’s spring collection, and the beauty mogul Cassandra Grey in a mint trouser suit. A few seats down, the Beckham family (although not Brooklyn). Harper, now eight and perched on her father’s knee next to Anna Wintour. Harper, incidentally, was wearing a midi.
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